Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer and national captain Jean de Villiers both lauded the performance by South Africa in their 22-6 (8-6 at half-time)victory over Italy in Padua (Padova) on Saturday afternoon.
The Springboks scored three tries to nil, with Coenie Oosthuizen, Cobus Reinach and Bryan Habana crossing the Italians’ try-line. Pat Lambie added a penalty goal to lift him to 100 Test points and Handré Pollard slotted two conversions.
It was the first time since June 2008 that the Springboks had managed to keep Italy from scoring a try and the first time ever the Azzurri failed to cross the South African try-line in a Test in front of their home fans.
“I’m very happy with the result and fact that we didn’t concede any tries and no points in the second half,” said Meyer. “I’ll always prefer a try-count of 3-0 instead of 5-3.”
The Springbok coach was also full of praise for a number of lesser experienced players who started at the Stadio Euganeo, in Trevor Nyakane, Coenie Oosthuizen and Johan Goosen, as well as the two Test debutants, Nizaam Carr and Julian Redelinghuys.
“I’m also very proud of the way in which they came through, especially in the scrums, where Trevor, in his first start, Coenie and Julian were part of a dominant performance against a very good Italian scrum,” said Meyer.
“The same goes for Johan, playing at fullback in a Test for the first time, while I thought Nizaam made a big impact when he came on – he had a massive hand in Cobus’ try which was great to see.
“It was always going to be a scrappy affair and it’s never easy playing away from home against a very passionate Italian side. The Italians had a proper go and they deserve a lot of credit for their performance. But our guys stuck to their guns and pulled it through when it mattered most.”
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The injection of some much needed unpredictability from the substitutes bench saved the Springboks from the potential for blushes as the world’s second ranked team laboured to a 22-6 win over lowly Italy in Padova on Saturday afternoon.
That scoreline might suggest it was a convincing win for Jean de Villiers’s team, but it was far from it. The Boks did have the advantage when it came to territory and their physical game did appear to be wearing the tenacious Italians down, yet they lacked the clinical edge needed to put away a home team that was spurred on by a boisterous crowd.
Let it be said too that the Boks also made it hard for themselves by keeping up what has become a disturbing trend in their game.
The Boks have risen to become the IRB’s No 2 ranked team in Heyneke Meyer’s time as coach, but they seem at times to be going in the opposite direction when it comes to making intelligent decisions and would be strong candidates for the tag of dumbest team of the year.
The first sign of madness is said to be when you make a mistake and then keep trying the same thing again and expect a different result, and that could be said of the spurning of kickable penalties that would have had the effect of forcing Italy to play catch-up and suffocating their challenge.
The first came towards the end of the first half, when flyhalf Patrick Lambie was instructed to kick to the corner from a penalty that would have put the Boks more than a score ahead – eight points – for the first time had they elected to kick it.
Instead, the Boks failed to take advantage of their first-phase opportunity in the red zone, and the gap stayed at five points.
That was cut to two when Italy flyhalf Kelly Haikona kicked a penalty on the stroke of halftime, and that would have boosted the confidence of the underdogs.
After halftime, which was taken with the Boks 8-6 ahead, the Boks were clearly trying to up the tempo of their play in their attempt to break down the Italian defensive wall and their resolve.
But it was still inexcusable that first scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, who did not have nearly as good a game as the Italian television commentators who awarded him the man of the match award seemed to imagine, elected to tap another kickable penalty.
Tired Springboks
De Villiers then elected to kick another one into the corner, with the lineout forwards again failing to be precise, and Italy could well have ended up taking the lead had they landed a long-range kick in the 57th minute.
The attempt fell short though, and the Boks ended up capitalising when the substitutes came on and introduced some much needed urgency from the bench.
It was Willie le Roux and Nizaam Carr in particular who brought the necessary sharpness on counter-attack that led to a good try from Reinach, with replacement No 8 Carr providing the try-scoring pass with his first touch of the ball in international rugby.
The Boks did continue to labour after that and the Italians were actually on the attack going into the last minute of the game and building for a try that would have made the final scoreline much closer, but a moment of typical Le Roux ingenuity put Handre Pollard into a gap and the replacement flyhalf ran 50 metres before sending out a typically impressive long pass out to Bryan Habana, who crossed for his 57th test try.
The Boks scored three tries to none and did deserve to win, but shouldn’t be too happy with their overall performance ahead of their last engagement of the year against Wales in Cardiff.
Like the other southern hemisphere teams, the Boks do look tired, and that might be another argument for a different selection policy for a game like this, as new players bring energy to the group and in this match the Boks lacked energy for most of the 80 minutes.
Not that it was all negative for the Boks, as the scoreboard will reflect, and while there was some uncharacteristically sloppy work from the lineout forwards in getting turned over a few times on attack, the scrum stood up well to a strong Italian unit. Trevor Nyakane was excellent before he was replaced and has developed into a good international forward.
Coenie Oosthuizen creaked once or twice but he also went well in some scrums too. It was Oosthuizen who barged over after a long and patient build-up in the 21st minute for the first try of the game.
Haikona had kicked the first points of the match with an early penalty as Italy started strongly, with Lambie striking back with a penalty for the Boks a few minutes later.
The Boks were strong on the drive and Marcell Coetzee did some yeoman work at the breakdowns in the first half.
Talking of breakdowns, French referee Jerome Garces was poor and seemed intent on letting almost everything go, and that needs to be factored into any criticism dished out to the Boks for their less than impressive day at the office.
Scorers:
Springboks 22
- Tries: Coenie Oosthuizen (1), Cobus Reinach (1), Bryan Habana (1)
- Conversions: Handré Pollard (2)
- Penalty: Patrick Lambie (1)
Italy 6
- Penalties: Kelly Haikona (2)