After the high intensity performance against France the previous week and the come-from-behind effort in Cardiff the week before that, the Springboks were probably due the step backwards they took against Italy in Witbank.

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The Boks won 29-13 to extend their record for the season so far to three wins in three starts, but it was the best result the Italians have achieved against South Africa in nine starts dating back to 1995. And the most worrying thing of all for the Boks was that the 16 point winning margin flattered them, with Italy being more than competitive in most areas of the game.

Indeed, were it not for their high success rate in converting territory into points in the first half, when they scored off virtually every visit into Italian territory, the Boks could have been in massive trouble. Certainly they would have been forgiven if they looked at the 22-3 score at the break and wondered how they got there.

Every South African both in the stadium and watching on television would have expected the Boks to take further control in the second half. Assistant coach Gary Gold admitted in the television interview at half time that the side were unhappy with the first half and would be looking to lift in the second 40 minute period.

But it didn’t happen, and instead it was Italy who outscored the Boks in the second half, with the hosts paying the price for some inexplicably sloppy play that was a dramatic slide from the efficiency and respect for the basics that had been the hallmark of their play in the opening two weekends of the international season.

Victor Matfield, skipper for the day, was an understandably frustrated man afterwards.

“It was very frustrating for us. It was a day of bad mistakes. We’d win a lineout, and then the ball would be popped down and dropped. It just wasn’t happening for us,” said Matfield.

Matfield did say though that there were some good aspects in isolation, and while the game was a timely wake-up call, perhaps more should be made of the one area where the Boks did get it right this time — which was the scrum.

When they played Italy in Italy last November the Bok scrum was shown up horribly, and ahead of the Witbank game the scrum was the one area of South African concern, particularly as the combination of Gurthro Steenkamp, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Jannie du Plessis is relatively new.

However, Steenkamp continued the magnificent form he has shown all season, while Ralepelle and Du Plessis carried on from where they left off in an impressive second half as replacements against France.

The scrum was the one area of Bok dominance in a first half where they were mostly confined to their own territory, and it played more than a bit part in ensuring that the South Africans were ahead at the break.

Like the rest of the Bok game, the scrum fell away towards the end, and the Italians were scrumming the Boks on their own line when the final whistle came. But that might have had more to do with the substitutions that were made than any other factor.

On the point of substitutions, it is not necessarily the front-row replacements that should be blamed for the loss of scrumming authority late in the game. It may not be a coincidence that it was after Bakkies Botha left the field five minutes into the second half that the Bok scrum stopped being effective.

Botha was replaced by Alistair Hargreaves, who is a fine player but essentially a No 5 lock. Having two more athletic locks in the form of Hargreaves and Matfield together did not help the Bok cause in the scrums, just as it left them looking impotent when Hargreaves and Andries Bekker were paired together at stages of the midweek games on the last overseas tour.

In defence of Springbok coach Peter de Villiers, however, it needs to be remembered that this was very much an experimental outing for the Boks. It is unlikely they would make the selection mistake of playing Matfield and Hargreaves together if it were a Tri-Nations fixture.

That is a point to bear in mind all-round after Witbank — just as there shouldn’t be too much euphoria when the Boks thump a team like Italy, so there shouldn’t be too much negativity when they struggle. A team like Italy is hard to get yourself up for when the European champions have been thumped by a massive score just the previous week.

The form of Botha in his first game back from injury and suspension and the scrum represented a significant step forward even if in other areas it was an utterly forgettable afternoon.