South Africa shrugged off a red card for the second successive match to power to a 32-14 win over an Italy side which threw away a golden opportunity to earn a rare win over the Springboks in Turin.
Franco Mostert was shown a red card after 11 minutes on Saturday but Italy failed to make their extra man count.
The decision caused uproar in South African rugby circles, and came a week after Lood de Jager was sent off against France.
Tries from Marco van Staden, Morne van Den Berg, Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker earned South Africa a comfortable win in the end after they withstood enormous early pressure from Italy, who found one second-half try through Ange Capuozzo.
Italy came in buoyed up by last week’s fightback to record their second-ever win over Australia and they sensed a chance to do the same against the No.1 ranked side in the world after the Springboks made 11 changes to the side which beat France 32-17 a week ago.
Those chances took a huge boost when early Italian pressure had South Africa on the backfoot and the Boks lost Mostert to a straight red card for dangerous play but the visitors, who played the second half with 14 men against France, showed enormous resilience once again.
Garbisi, who had a 100 per cent kick rate against Australia, missed the resulting penalty and pulled another wide as Italy failed to get their noses in front.
A rare foray into the Italian 22-metre area led to Handre Pollard converting a penalty before Garbisi finally got off the mark to level but Van Staden drove over for a try on the stroke of halftime and, with Pollard’s conversion, South Africa went in 10-3 up.
Garbisi put over two penalties after the break to make it a one-point match, before another Pollard penalty and Van Den Berg’s try put South Africa back in the driving seat.
Capuozzo darted in to find Italy’s only try and briefly keep them in touch, although Garbisi failed to convert. Italy’s spirit was finally broken with tries in the last 10 minutes from Williams and Hooker.
Italy are left with plenty of regrets after failing to make their pressure count and often resorting to ineffective grubber kicks when close to the Springboks’ line and in the end South Africa’s strength proved too much for Gonzalo Quesada’s side.
South Africa beat France 32-17 a week ago, playing with 14 men for all of the second half, after the send off of de Jager.
“It is what it is. What I say can’t make a difference. I’m just grateful that we had Ben O’Keeffe on the one side and an experienced referee (in James Doleman),” said Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus..
“I’m not saying it in a negative way. What I can say is that it’s sad that our captain, who had to make that sacrifice in his 100th game and in this game.”
He was talking about the impact the red cards had on Siya Kolisi, who was taken off early in both matches after the red cards.
Erasmus said the officiating around the tackle zone was impacting his tall players.
“I always thought we wanted to get to 20-minute red cards, and we have to re-check on that, but it’s not my place to talk about it. However, for a captain to twice in a week to suffer for us to win is sad.
“I’m not saying the calls were wrong, but I definitely saw a lot of other shots in the game. By that I’m not criticising, that is life, and once we review the game, we may come to a different conclusion and see that we were totally wrong, and then we have to rectify it.
“We got a red card, and they got a yellow card, which I probably thought was the right call, but losing two locks in two games now for going lower than they can go, it’s tough to understand.
“Again, I’m not saying anyone is wrong, but we don’t know how to coach guys to go lower, especially for a two-metre-tall guy to face someone who is on his knees is tough. And then to play with 13 men, and them with 14 for a while, it was tougher than last week.”
Springboks legends Nick Mallett and Schalk Burger slammed the decision.
“More fiction is being written there than in Hollywood between the referees,” Burger said on SuperSport.
“‘Clear head contact’ said the TMO, there is no clear head contact – that’s mitigation.”
Mallett added: ” it wasn’t direct contact to the head, it was indirect by his arm that was coming around to wrap. So to say that he hit him with an arm tucked being his shoulder, I think is a fabrication.
“I think that we should take away from the referee and the assistants the right to make a red card call that is so damaging to the game, it should be given to the TMO in the bunker to look at it and say it is a yellow card extended to a red card, and it gets adjudged by a disciplinary.”
The Roarhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/11/16/tough-to-understand-rassie-highlights-sad-impact-as-boks-suffer-another-straight-red-in-italy-win/‘Tough to understand’: Rassie highlights ‘sad’ impact as Boks suffer another straight red in Italy win
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