It was supposed to be a curtain-raiser to a confident Springbok season—a thumping, a muscle-flexing, a chest-thumping return to their fortress at Loftus Versfeld. But instead of a thundering Bok stampede, the 42–24 win over Italy on Saturday stuttered like a tractor in mud, leaving head coach Rassie Erasmus grim-faced, arms folded, and thoughts swirling like a high ball in a Highveld gust.
The Springboks may have dotted down six tries to three but make no mistake: this was no symphony. It was a discordant jam session, equal parts brilliance, and befuddlement.
We’re frustrated. I guess it’s a positive that we scored six tries… but I didn’t pick up in the week that this was the way we were going to perform. It’s all fixable—but it’s definitely frustrating.
At halftime, South Africa were 28-3 up and looked poised to put Italy to the sword. The Azzurri, youthful and gritty, had been forced into over 120 tackles in the opening 40—a punishment any other Test side would’ve buckled under. But the second stanza saw the Springboks, inexplicably, take their foot off the gas, and instead of a knock-out punch, they offered a tentative jab.
You’d think a team that made 120 tackles in the first half would break in the second half. But it’s a team that’s fit and passionate. We have to make sure the team we put out next week isn’t just one that can go 50 or 60 minutes—it must go 80.
Therein lies the rub.
This Bok outfit—stacked with pedigree and power—let the initiative slip. After the disallowed try for obstruction early in the second half, the match lost rhythm, and with it, South Africa’s grip. The Italians—battered but not bowed—rose from the turf like a boxer staggering off the ropes, throwing haymakers with surprising effect. In fact, they finished the stronger side, and had the scoreboard pressure ticked a bit higher, Erasmus admits they could’ve clawed their way all the way back.
They could easily have come back into it at the end. They performed really well—we definitely tried to impose our game on them, and they didn’t allow it. It was a proper Test match. We knew they would man up, and they certainly manned up in most departments: scrums, mauling, defence, attack.
This wasn’t just about a few missed tackles or knock-ons; it was about mental lapses, structural stutters, and a creeping lack of intensity that turned what could’ve been a rout into a warning shot. The breakdown was ragged, the maul misfired, the counterattack lacked venom.
The frustration was not only about not dominating but also that the game was stop-start, stop-start. It felt like we didn’t get any intensity in the second half.
Still, there were glimmers of hope. The Boks showed they could still cross the whitewash even when their traditional weapons misfired.
The positives are that we won; that we scored tries even with a maul that didn’t function, even with a breakdown that wasn’t great on attack, even with a counterattack that wasn’t awesome—we still scored six tries.
But the overarching emotion? Frustration. And it prompted Erasmus to rip up his pre-planned selection script for the second Test in Gqeberha.
Internally we’ve announced that 13, 14 players will definitely get a run next week, and we’d build the bench or starting line-up around those guys. We won’t discard those guys but some of them might move to the bench, some of the real standout players who played today might start again.
That means the revolving door of Bok selection is spinning once more. Players who didn’t show enough grunt may find themselves benched, while others who charged in with fire might get a second crack.
We have to pick nine guys to go with the others, and we have to decide whether they start or come off the bench. Damian de Allende has a bit of a hamstring but luckily, we don’t have any injuries—just a few bruised egos.
Perhaps those bruised egos are the most valuable outcome of this scrappy encounter. A splash of humility before heading to Gqeberha may just sharpen the edge of a Springbok side that, for all its firepower, still seems to be clearing its throat after a long off-season.
Because if Italy can stand toe-to-toe with the world champions in the second half, what happens when one of the big beasts comes to town?
Rassie’s got a week to find that answer. And judging by the look on his face after full-time, the drawing boards already covered in scribbles.
