South Africa v Italy: Boks need to get the job done in Turin

NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP 2026

SATURDAY – ITALY v SOUTH AFRICA @ ALLIANZ STADIUM, TURIN – KO 1.40PM (SAST)

REFEREE NOTES

Eoghan Cross (Ireland)

Test debut: 18 December, 2021 – Netherlands 7-52 Spain

Tests as referee: 12

• Eoghan Cross will referee Italy for the first time with this fixture.

• South Africa won their only previous Test with the Irish official in the middle, beating Japan 61-7 at Wembley in November 2025.

• This will be Cross’ third Test of the year, having overseen Wales’ 39-24 defeat of Fiji in the Nations Championship in July and Australia’s 35-32 win against Japan in Osaka in August.

• He will also referee the Portugal v Samoa match in the World Rugby Nations Cup in Lisbon on 14 November.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

1995-2025 | Played 19 | Italy 1 | South Africa 18

Points for: Italy 233/South Africa 883 (Avg. score 12-47)

Highest score: Italy 31 (31-62 on 8 November, 1997)/South Africa 101 (101-0 on 19 June, 1999)

Biggest winning margin: Italy 2 (20-18 on 19 November, 2016)/South Africa 101 (101-0 on 19 June, 1999)

First met: 12 November, 1995 – South Africa 40-21 Italy – Stadio Olimpico, Rome

• This is the fourth meeting between the teams in the last 16 months and the second at this venue in Turin.

• South Africa have won the last six matches but failed to score 35+ points for the first time in that run in the most recent meeting last November.

• Franco Mostert was red-carded in the 11th minute of that game for a high tackle on Paolo Garbisi.

• It was the Springboks’ second red card in as many matches against Italy, with Jasper Wiese the guilty party in Gqeberha in July 2025.

• Nine cards in total were issued in the three meetings in 2025 (five yellows for Italy and two yellows and two reds for South Africa).

• Five of the 17 tries scored by the Springboks across those three matches were by scrumhalves (Morne van den Berg, three and Grant Williams, two).

• Italy have failed to score a try in half of the matches in their current losing run against the Springboks.

• Italy’s only victory against the Springboks was 20-18 in Florence in 2016.

• The home side had lost all 12 of their previous encounters with the Springboks until that point, dating back to 1995.

• Tries from Bryan Habana and Damian de Allende gave the Springboks a 12-10 half-time lead.

• But Italy, guided by Irish coach Conor O'Shea, fought back and Giovanbattista Venditti added to South African-born Dris van Schalwyk's first-half try.

• A Carlo Canna penalty with 15 minutes to go gave the Azzurri an historic win.

• Simone Ferrari and Tommaso Allan are the lone survivors in the Italian squad from that victory, while the four players in the current Springbok squad who played that day are De Allende, Lood de Jager, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Mostert.

ITALY TEAM NOTES

• Italy are playing for the first time since they rounded off the Southern Hemisphere Series with a third straight defeat, 57-10 at the hands of Australia.

• Having failed to pick up any bonus points from those defeats to Japan, New Zealand and the Wallabies, Italy are rooted to the foot of the northern hemisphere standings.

• Italy have scored the fewest points (37) and none in the final quarter of matches and have conceded the second-most (131).

• As a side that struggles to get into the opposition 22 (23 entries, 12th), it is not surprising that the Azzurri are the lowest try-scoring team in the competition (5).

• Italy have only scored more than 23 points twice in their last 13 Tests (26-19 v Australia and 34-19 v Chile in November).

• Italy have received two of the three red cards handed out so far (Niccoló Cannone v New Zealand and Marco Riccioni v Australia).

• Otherwise, their discipline has been reasonably good, conceding 26 penalties thus far, which is well below the tournament average of 33.

• While their line-out has misfired (ranked 11th), when throws do find their man, Italy are the only team to win all of their mauls (14/14).

• Italy have conceded the most turnovers (50) and are the least effective team in getting over the gain-line (38.7%).

• Ross Vintcent leads the Nations Championship for total successful tackles with 64, contributing to Italy's position as the top tackling side with 632 successful tackles (at an average of 210.7 per game), completing 77.4% of their attempts.

• The Japan match in round one was only the third time in their last 13 Tests that the Azzurri have played a team ranked lower than them.

• A first-ever win over England at the 33rd attempt and the round one win over Scotland helped Italy to a fourth-place finish in the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

• In the most attack-minded of championships, Italy were the only team not to get into double figures for tries scored (nine) and had the worst conversion rate in terms of points per entry into the opposition 22 (1.6).

• Italy beat the fewest defenders (93) but were ranked joint-second for line-breaks (47, along with France) in the 2026 Men’s Six Nations.

• Italy had the lowest success rate in front of goal in the championship (72%).

SQUAD NOTES

• Former Argentina flyhalf Domingo Miotti, who won the last of his nine caps in July 2022, has been named in Gonzalo Quesada’s squad after going through the birthright transfer process.

• Prop Marco Riccioni has withdrawn from the squad due to family reasons and has been replaced by Giosuè Zilocchi.

• He is one of 15 players unavailable to Quesada for this weekend, with captain Michele Lamaro, first-choice centre pairing Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello, wing Louis Lynagh, back-row Sebastian Negri and second-row Andrea Zambonin all missing through injury.

• Samuele Locatelli is the only uncapped player named in the squad to face South Africa, stepping into the openside shirt in the absence of Lamaro.

• Winger Monty Ioane will bring up 50 Tests for the Azzurri, while second-row Federico Ruzza brings up 75 caps and is the most-capped player in the starting line-up.

COACH NOTES

• Gonzalo Quesada was named Italy’s head coach in June 2023, succeeding Kieran Crowley in the role and took charge of his first game in the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

• He has won 36.7% of his games in charge (P30, W11, D1, L17). 

• Quesada was part of the France coaching set-up between 2008 and 2011 under Marc Lièvremont, helping them to win the Men’s Six Nations Grand Slam in 2010 before reaching the Rugby World Cup final the following year. 

• The Pumas legend joined Italy from French outfit Stade Français Paris, whom he led to the Top 14 title in the first of his two spells in charge.  

• Quesada also coached Los Jaguares to the 2019 Super Rugby final and is the first Argentinian to be a head coach in the Men’s Six Nations. 

• Quesada scored 486 points in his Test playing career, winning 38 caps for Los Pumas.

SA TEAM NOTES

• South Africa enter the Northern Hemisphere Series of the Nations Championship on the back of a defeat, a 42-38 loss to the Wallabies in Perth.

• It was only their fourth loss in their last 27 Tests (the others being 38-22 v Australia and 24-17 v New Zealand in 2025 and 33-16 v New Zealand in August).

• South Africa trailed 24-17 at half-time against Australia, the first time they have been behind at the break in 2026.

• South Africa have conceded four tries or more in each of their last five Tests.

• The defeat to Australia followed the Springboks’ 3-1 win in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series with New Zealand, which helped to lift their rating in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings above 95 points for the first time in history.

• South Africa outscored New Zealand across the series, 121 points to 111 but the All Blacks scored more tries (17-14).

• The Springboks held the lead for 210 minutes across the series compared to New Zealand's 77 (42 of which were in the All Blacks’ first Test victory).

• The Springboks conceded 35 penalties across four Tests to the All Blacks' 43 but had four players sin-binned to New Zealand’s one.

• On average, South Africa conceded six points for every 10 minutes they had fewer than 15 players on the field.

• Nearly a third of the penalties awarded to South Africa came at the scrum (13).

• Adding to their set-piece dominance, South Africa only lost two of their 43 throws into the line-out (95.3%) compared to New Zealand’s eight.

• South Africa’s kick retention success rate was 23% compared to New Zealand’s 18%.

• The Springboks gained more metres against New Zealand in the fourth and final Test (695) than in any other game against the All Blacks in the last 10 years.

• While New Zealand were more clinical in the opposition 22 over the duration of the series, the 4.8 points for every entry that South Africa managed in the second Test was the most ruthless they’d been in attack against the All Blacks in the last 10 years.

• The defeat to New Zealand in the opening Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry test ended South Africa’s 12-match winning streak – their best sequence of results under Rassie Erasmus and the most consecutive wins since they achieved 13 in a row between 2007-08.

• South Africa conceded multiple yellow cards in a single match for the first time in 24 Tests in that opening encounter.

• South Africa went into the August/September Test window, which began with a 17-10 win over Argentina, sitting on top of the Nations Championship southern hemisphere standings on points difference, having picked up maximum points from their first three fixtures.

• The Springboks’ points difference is +81, 30 better than fellow unbeaten side New Zealand.

• With the win over Scotland in round two, South Africa became the first team since England in 2002-03 to beat every Men’s Six Nations and Rugby Championship team in a 12-month period.

• South Africa scored the most points (130) and tries (20) in the Nations Championship in July.

• Strong at the start and finish, seven of South Africa’s tries were scored in the first quarter and seven in the final quarter.

• The Springboks had the most entries into the opposition 22 across the first three rounds (43).

SQUAD NOTES

• Salmaan Moerat will play his first Test of 2026 after recovering from the injuries that sidelined him for the team’s previous matches, lining up alongside Ruan Nortje in the second row.

• Ox Nche, current World Rugby Men's 15s Player of the Year Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit pack down in front of them, while the back row is made up of captain Siya Kolisi, double former World Rugby Men's 15s Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit on the flanks

• and the team's newest half-centurion Jasper Wiese at No.8

• Morné van dan Berg and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu form the half-back combination and have Damien de Allende and this year's top try-scorer, Jesse Kriel (5), outside of them.

• Ethan Hooker and Kurt-Lee Arendse offer the threat on the wings, while Damian Willemse rounds out the team at fullback.

• The Springboks' starting XV has 1 835 caps between them, split 357/478 between backs and forwards.

• South Africa are without Cheslin Kolbe, their leading points scorer this year (44 points) and their most-capped player, Eben Etzebeth, through injury.

• Other Rugby World Cup winners, such as Andre Esterhuizen and Handré Pollard, have also been sidelined.

• Six uncapped players have been included in the tour squad: Yaqeen Ahmed, Sebastian de Klerk, Luan Giliomee, Markus Muller, Riley Norton and Emmanuel Tshituka.

• Ahmed, Giliomee and Muller were all part of the Junior Springboks squad that successfully defended the World Rugby Junior World Championship crown in Georgia in July.

COACH NOTES

• Rassie Erasmus returned to the Springbok head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him through to the end of 2027.

• The win over Les Bleus at the Stade de France a year ago was his 50th as head coach.

• He has overseen 36 Tests in his second spell, winning 30 and losing six (83.3%).

• Overall, he has been in charge of 62 tests (head coach/director of rugby) and moved past Jake White as the Springboks’ most experienced coach during the Nations Championship in July.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• He also led South Africa to their first Rugby Championship title in five years in 2024 and a clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series that followed.

• His first reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

DID YOU KNOW…?

• Tommaso Allan is the nephew of former Springbok hooker John Allan.

WORLD RUGBY MEN’S RANKINGS PERMUTATIONS

• South Africa cannot improve their rating with victory over Italy due to the 14.79 points differential between the teams.

• The Springboks’ reign at the top of the rankings is at risk if they fail to beat an injury-depleted Italy with a New Zealand win over Scotland taking the All Blacks back to No 1.

• A South Africa defeat would need New Zealand only needing a draw to go top.

• The Springboks cannot fall any lower than second place this weekend.

• Italy can jump two places to ninth if they beat South Africa for only the second time, climbing above Wales – even if they beat Japan – and a Fiji side beaten by France.

• The Azzurri cannot slip from 11th place this weekend if beaten as a Japan victory over Wales would see those sides simply swap places with each other.

Italy starting XV: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco; 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Alessandro Ortombina; 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone; 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (capt), 1 Muhamed Hasa. Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan.

Springbok starting XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker; 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg; 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt); 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Salmaan Moerat; 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok.

Italy v South Africa @ Allianz Stadium, Turin - Saturday @ 1.40pm

Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)

Assistant Referee 1: James Doleman (NZR)

Assistant Referee 2: Sam Grove-White (SRU)

TMO: Brett Cronan (RA)

FPRO: Mike Adamson (SRU)