Springboks Run in Nine Tries to Thrash Depleted Italy 66-7 and Stay Perfect in Turin

The contest was over before half-time. It was over, really, within the first ten minutes. South Africa arrived in Turin as world champions facing an Italy side missing as many as sixteen players, and they played like a team that knew exactly how the afternoon would go — fast, ruthless, and without a shred of mercy. By the time the players walked off at the break, the Springboks led 45-0. Six tries, all converted, and an Italian defence that had not managed a single dominant carry. The bonus point had been secured by the 25th minute, when the scoreboard already read 38-0, and the only question left was whether South Africa would reach a century. Errors crept in after the break and the intensity dropped, but the damage was done long before. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu set the tone. He opened the scoring with an early penalty, then sliced through from forty metres for the first of nine Springbok tries, a solo score that summed up the gulf between the sides. He finished the afternoon with 26 points — a try, nine conversions and a penalty — and he was not even the official player of the match. That honour went to Morne van den Berg, whose kicking game and passing were rated the best on the field, and who also crossed for a try of his own. The tries came from everywhere. Malcolm Marx scored twice. Siya Kolisi, the captain, went over. Damian Willemse, Wilco Louw, Paul de Villiers and Ethan Hooker all got on the scoresheet. It was the kind of afternoon where the bench barely mattered, because the starting side had already done the job twice over before the replacements arrived. Italy, to their credit, refused to finish scoreless. Federico Ruzza crossed in the 62nd minute, Tommaso Allan converted, and the home crowd found its voice at last. The second half was a different game in fairness to the Azzurri — 21-7 to the Boks rather than 45-0 — and their bench gave them something to hold on to. But a team that loses sixteen players before kick-off cannot live with the world champions for eighty minutes, and nobody in Turin really expected them to. The win keeps South Africa perfect in the Nations Championship: four wins from four, a maximum twenty points from twenty, and top of the Southern Hemisphere table. Just as significantly, it gives them an 89-point advantage over New Zealand on points difference, a cushion that could matter a great deal when the finals come around. The Springboks' points difference now stands at plus 140, and with France in Paris on Friday and Ireland in Dublin on 21 November still to come, Rassie Erasmus will know the hard part of this campaign is still ahead. The second-half errors will have annoyed him more than the scoreline pleased him — Paris, one of the biggest grudge matches in Test rugby, is only six days away. Italy, meanwhile, drop to 0-4, with Argentina and Fiji still to come. There was pride in the second half and a try to celebrate, but this was a day for counting the missing rather than the points. The finals weekend at Twickenham in the last week of November will go ahead without them, and the Azzurri will be left to measure how far they still have to travel. On this evidence, the distance is considerable.