The Springboks repeated what they did in Paris the previous week by playing most of the game with 14 men and defying what this week was an even more incompetent match officiating team as they surged late to win 32-14 against Italy in Turin on Saturday.
There have been two things that have been consistent so far about this stage of the international rugby year - one of them is the role that questionable refereeing/TMO decisions have made on games and the other is the consistency of the Boks, who as they did at Stade de France the previous week had to weather much pressure before finishing as the dominant team.
Last week the Boks were down to 14 men from just before halftime after lock Lood de Jager was red carded for what was deemed a dangerous challenge on French fullback Thomas Ramos.
This time they were down to 14 from the 11th minute, and let’s just say that while there might have been a modicum of room for debate last week, this time there could be no debate.
SCHALK WAS RIGHT - CARD WAS WORK OF FICTION
The red card shown to Franco Mostert was just patently wrong and former Bok great Schalk Burger, working as an analyst in the SuperSport studio, had it spot on when he described the decision made by referee James Doleman, who had a shocking almost Bryce Lawrence like allround game with the whistle, in collaboration with his TMO as pure fiction.
Our panel analyses the moment Franco Mostert received a permanent red card 🟥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) November 15, 2025
Watch the full chat on our YouTube channel 🗣️📺#QuilterNS | #SSRugby
Mostert was shown a permanent red because of a perception that there’d been shoulder contact from Mostert to an Italian player’s head.
The replays made it crystal clear - the contact was not with the head, but the shoulder, and if there was a failure on the Bok lock’s part to wrap his arms it was because he had a teammate in the picture and it wasn’t just one on one.
Franco Mostert receives a straight red card 🟥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) November 15, 2025
The Springboks are down to 14 men for the second week in a row 👇
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The decision to give De Jager a permanent red last week was what was questioned.
A yellow or bunker red, meaning 20 minutes for the Boks to be down to 14 men and then on comes a replacement, might have been accepted by the Boks and the South African rugby public.
But this time it should not have even been a yellow for what the referees and the TMO decided had happened simply didn’t happen.
It was on the level of the 20-minute red card shown to Ireland flanker Tadgh Beirne against the All Blacks a couple of weeks ago, or maybe even worse as a complete shocker.
This wasn’t about the law being an ass, meaning that’s the problem, but about the sheer, mind-boggling incompetence of the refereeing team.
Mostert’s red meant that the Boks, who had already made it harder for themselves by making 11 changes from the side that played last week in a quest to build depth, were really up against it.
RASSIE MIGHT BE GRATEFUL FOR THE PRESSURE TEST
And let it be said that seeing his team got through with the win despite all the adversity, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus will appreciate the pressure test his young and less experienced team was subject to.
He’d mentioned beforehand that for once it was the opposition who boasted more collective international caps, and sure enough it was Italy who spent most of the first half in Bok territory and who got the better of the battle for possession.
Also, for once, it was the Boks under the whip in the scrums.
What role the red card might have played in the disjointedness is hard to tell, but Erasmus ended up having to replace young Zac Porthen, playing just his second game for the Boks, after 19 minutes, and Boan Venter after 23 minutes.
The loss of Mostert also rebounded on an innocent player in the form of blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon, who had to make way so that Ruan Nortje, as he did the previous week, could come on to call the lineouts.
Andre Esterhuizen came on later to reprise his role as a ‘flenter’, a cross between centre and flank, and Ethan Hooker, selected at inside centre, also had pack down at times in the scrums.
Not that there were many of those in the game, but when there were it was Italy on top until around the middle stages of the second half.
The Boks had to defend like trojans in the first half and that’s where Erasmus should be pleased - the defence was perfect, and Italy could make little headway either when they carried the ball or when they kicked the ball into space behind the advancing Bok defence.
There was a 96 per cent tackle completion rate from the Boks in the first half, and that played a big part in keeping the hosts scoreless at the home ground of football team Juventus for most of the first half.
So did the good positional play of Damian Willemse at fullback, who was a deserving recipient of the man of the match award and who brought his attacking skills, or stepping ability, to the fore later in the game.
The Boks weathered the storm and then went ahead through a Handre Pollard drop-goal after 32 minutes, only for that score to be cancelled out as the game was about to restart because the TMO had spotted what can best be called a debatable obstruction by Wilco Louw in the buildup to the kick.
As Doleman was already playing penalty advantage, we saw the farcical situation of Pollard adding the three points that would have been accrued by the drop-goal through a penalty in front of the posts.
‘ESKOM’S TRY WAS CRUCIAL
After all the huff and puff of Italy until then it would have been like a dagger to the heart for them to find themselves behind.
But they quickly made up for it by kicking a penalty in the 37th minute through flyhalf Paolo Garbisi, who had missed two earlier attempts to give his team the lead.
Then came a crucial juncture in the game, with the Boks getting a rare opportunity to set up inside the Italy 22 and after tapping from a free kick the South Africans drove over the line for Marco van Staden to dot down.
Pollard’s conversion made it 10-3 to the Boks at halftime.
Italy kicked two penalties early in the second half to make it a one point game before Pollard stretched the South African lead to four points.
The Boks were starting to get more control though, with the big ball carriers making many metres, and it looked like when scrumhalf Morne van den Berg went over for a try near the posts on the hour mark that might be game, set and match in favour of the Boks.
The Springbok scrumhalves always get in on the action 🤌🇿🇦
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) November 15, 2025
Morné van den Berg is over the line 🏉
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But the Italy team doesn’t give up and seven minutes later they scored a brilliantly worked try through fullback Ange Capuozzo, only for Garbisi’s conversion to slip just wide of the near post to leave the Bok advantage at six points.
The Bok forwards were starting to take control but it was the backs who fashioned the match clinching try, with Willemse launching a counter attack that set Canan Moodie up for a thrilling run down the left touchline and he found the reserve scrumhalf Grant Williams on his inside.
There was going to be no stopping the pacy halfback and replacement flyhalf Manie Libbok duly kicked the conversion to give the Boks a 27-14 lead with less than eight minutes to go.
FARCICAL END WAS FITTING END FOR A POOR REFEREE
Just for good measure, Libbok produced one of his trademark pinpoint flat cross kicks off the last move and Hooker rose up to take it and score his first try for the Boks and stretch the lead to 18 points.
Ethan Hooker will never forget his first Springbok try 🤩🇿🇦#SSRugby | #QuilterNS pic.twitter.com/yF5X0AHtmX
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) November 15, 2025
It was almost fitting given how farcical the refereeing was that Libbok wasn’t allowed the conversion because the shot clock ran down even though there’d been people flooding onto the field.
Another memorable day for the Boks, a not so memorable one for the refereeing team or for that matter the equally incompetent World Rugby administration who preside over a refereeing and law protocol that appears to have no feel for what rugby is or should be as a sport.
Scores
South Africa 32 - Tries: Marco van Staden, Morne van den Berg, Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker; Conversions: Handre Pollard 2 and Manie Libbok; Penalties: Handre Pollard 2.
Italy 14 - Try: Ange Capuozzo; Penalties: Paolo Garbisi 3.
