Italy haven’t hurt the Springboks on the scoreboard in the four matches they have played and lost against the world champions since the start of the 2025 southern hemisphere international season, but they have developed an interesting knack of delivering wake-up calls.
Perhaps the Boks had been drawn into a complacent mood when they led comfortably at Loftus in what was their first official test match of that season last July. Whatever the reason for it, their concession of an embarrassing driving maul try, and the metres they gave to Italy in that aspect of the game, did set some alarm bells ringing.
It led to correction, almost over-correction, in Gqeberha the following week. Remember how the Boks sought to make an early physical statement, and succeeded in doing so, by ensuring at the kick-off that the game would have to start with a scrum. And later on we saw that lineout set in general play that set up a strong maul.
Afterwards the Italy coach wasn’t crazy about what had happened and wondered aloud at the post match press conference why the Boks were so determined to make a physical point in the game.
It was because of what happened a week earlier. Italy aren’t playing a back up test against the Boks this week, but it could be France that this time reap the consequences of what Italy did last week.
SECOND HALF SCRUM THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE
Of course the reference is to that second half scrum from Italy that came out of nowhere and obliterated the Bok scrum. That happened only once, and Ox Nche felt his team were punished there for just being too loose in their set, but generally the Boks didn’t enjoy the dominance in Turin that you’d have expected from their scrum. That despite routing Italy 66-7, with most of the damage to the hosts being done before halftime.
Nche, who isn’t used to being under pressure at scrum time, well at least not when he is wearing the Springbok jersey, admitted that what happened at the Allianz Stadium Turin has forced some introspection this week.
“They put us under a lot of pressure and we have some work to do,” admitted the man rated by most pundits as the world’s strongest and most feared loosehead prop.
“We weren’t on the same page as a pack. They were definitely more determined than we were. We were a bit loose. But we’ve got solutions. We will work on them to get a performance that matches our standards.”
FRANCE MAY REGRET ITALY WAKING THE BOKS UP
Forewarned is fore-armed, and France might regret that Italy effectively woke the Boks up to the reality that their expected scrum dominance is not always a gimme. Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has reacted by re-installing Wilco Louw, the strongest scrummaging tighthead, ahead of Thomas du Toit for Friday night’s fifth round Nations Championship fixture against the French in Paris.
That might be a rotation that was always going to happen, but it could also be recognition of what might be a concern over Du Toit’s scrumming, which was not always on the same level as Louw’s in the recent Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series. He was also given a going over by the Stormers looseheads in the recent Vodacom URC derby in Cape Town.
Du Toit is the more mobile player, and it would be for reasons based around tactics and strategy that Erasmus would decide whether he starts or finishes a game for the Boks. But it was interesting to hear the Bok coach earlier this week, when listing the players the Boks are missing at the moment, leading off with Frans Malherbe, the best No 3 in the world in two successive World Cups.
He said Malherbe will be back in January and is expected to travel to Australia next year with the World Cup squad even though the Stormers have never seemed quite sure as to whether Malherbe will ever return after missing two years with a back injury.
FRENCH MAKE SCRUMS PERSONAL
Meanwhile the big focus for the Boks right now is the France game, and it would be reasonable to suggest that the Bok scrum would be girding up for a big one and would be on high alert regardless of what happened in Italy last week.
“”We know that the French love their scrums and the French team is a good example of how the game is played by all shapes and sizes,” said Nche.
“When you scrum against France or a French team you get the same kind of personal battle that you get when you play against a fellow South African team in a URC derby.”
Indeed, and while the French are missing some key players because of injury, that is also not something that Nche and his teammates are thinking about as Friday night’s shoot-out under the Paris lights approaches.
Nche reminded an online press conference from the team hotel in Paris that France travelled to New Zealand for a three-test series last year with a very under-strength squad and were still more than just competitive.
“The French have a policy of giving players an opportunity and we have seen it when they tour. We are not looking at this game any differently to how we looked at last year’s game here. They may be missing some players but the players coming in will understand the system and they are still very good players.”