3 Things We Learnt from the Boks’ Win Over Italy

The Springboks managed to pick up a very much-needed win on their Autumn Nations Cup tour in the Northern Hemisphere, defeating Italy 21-63 in Genoa after narrow losses to both Ireland and France. With quite a high scoreline and quite the busy two halves, we’ve rounded up some key things to take away from the entertaining encounter.

Boks can be a second-half blitzer

While the Springboks have the ability to dominate teams from the outset, one issue they’ve faced in recent years is the capability to claw themselves back from an unfavourable scoreline, ala the All Blacks. The ‘Bomb Squad’ strategy did add some oomph off the bench, but they were often seen as closers to a tight encounter (winning a scrum or making a crucial turnover), and not necessarily players who would drastically swing the scoreline. Saturday’s match again Italy saw the likes of Kwagga Smith, Steven Kitshoff, Cobus Reinach, and Malcolm Marx all came off the bench and all scored, adding four tries to a second-half tally; not to mention the impact that Eben Eztebeth and Manie Libbok added to the general play.

The Springboks’ ‘heavier’ 4/2 split on the bench does work, but utilising their more mobile and devastating ball-carriers can go from winning a scrum or two in the final stages, to scoring a handful of tries and ripping teams to shreds.

Manie Libbok is the real deal

Keen followers of South African rugby will know that Libbok has been showing the goods since his time with the Bulls, and even more so with his direction to help the Stormers to their URC victory. But given real game time on Saturday showed how dynamic he can be, offering a much more direct attacking threat in the backline and utilising his strong left and right passes that put the likes of Willie le Roux into tons of space to do his thing. From a technical perspective, he has the ability to stop a defender in front of him and then deliver a pinpoint pass to the outside: exactly what the Boks need in order to create space for the dangerous outside backs.

Let the boys play!

Understandably, Italy looked to be expecting a crash-ball barrage from the Springboks (Andre Esterhuizen did deliver this in spades), but the compacted and narrower Italian defence in order to counter the big runners gave ample space for the likes of Arendse, Kolbe, and Le Roux to work on the outside channels. Of course, the never-ending debate of ‘should the Boks be a running team or a physical team’ will rage on forever dependent on the result of each game, but there’s no doubt that the Springboks can adapt and exploit wide areas as much as they can drive it through the middle. The Boks have been teetering on this dynamism for a while, and they perfectly showcased it during the second-half in Genoa.

What did you think of the Springboks’ performance? Let us know on @MenStuffZA on Twitter and in the comments section below.