Five takeaways from Springboks' scrappy win over Italy

The Springboks were made to sweat in the second half of their Test match against Italy, fighting hard to secure a 42-24 win in Pretoria.

Independent Media's John Goliath unpacks the Loftus Versfeld clash, which ended up being a rather scrappy affair.

Krappies make an impact, but needs to tidy up

Morne van den Berg must have looked out of his hotel room window on Saturday morning hoping for clear skies after playing in some horrible conditions in his first couple of matches in a Bok jersey.

The Lions scrumhalf got a lovely day to show off his skills. He scored two well-taken tries in the first half and his tactical kicking was for the most part very good.

However, at times he was a bit over-eager to get the ball out to provide quick ball, and his distribution wasn’t as clean as he would have liked. But he would have been pleased with his starting effort.

Springboks try to up the tempo, but Italy spoil the party

There was definitely some intent for the Springboks to impose themselves on the game and as well as speeding things up from the get-go. It’s probably why Van der Berg was trying to get the ball out as quickly as possible.

However, Italy were really street smart in getting in and amongst the Boks, standing in their passing lanes and trying to disrupt wherever they could. And they did a really good job, especially in the second half, which turned out to be a stop-start affair. But more of that later ...

Italy pitch up physically and target Boks’ big boys

Italy definitely pitched up in the physical stakes. It was probably the one area where some of these fringe players who were picked for the match would be tested against the world champions.

But they stood tall even targeted the Boks’ biggest bruisers, with some tasty tackles coming on the likes of Eben Etzebeth and Jasper Wiese. They also attacked the wide breakdowns with a lot of verve, which meant that Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe had to put their head into many rucks to secure the ball.

In the second half Italy also surprised the whole of Loftus when they scored a memorable maul try against the ‘bomb squad’.

Stop-start second half play into Italy’s hands

The second half was a rather awful watch for South African fans. Handling errors and stoppages for injuries definitely disrupted the flow of the game.

This played into Italy's hands. The Springboks then tried to force things and didn’t it really didn't help their cause. Italy also stole a few lineouts off the home side, which is normally crucial for the South Africans to get momentum to dominate. Oh, did I mention Italy scored a maul try?

Mixed bag from returning Springboks

While Lood de Jager made an emphatic return to the Bok fold against the Barbarians, there were a lot of eyes on fullback Damian Willemse and returning scrumhalf Faf de Klerk after a long absences.

Willemse put in a decent performance, mixing in a few good touches with the odd mistake. He had one great break which led to a try, but it was later chalked off because of obstruction.

It was a similar story for De Klerk, who struggled to really get into the game because of the great work Italy produced to spoil at the breakdown. However, he looked a step off the pace and will be looking to get his match sharpness on par before the Rugby Championship.

@JohnGoliath82