South Africa thump Italy to continue perfect Nations Championship run

Nations Championship: Italy 7 South Africa 66

South ‌Africa strolled past an injury-hit Italy in Turin, where outhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored the first of ​nine Springbok tries and added another 21 points in a perfect kicking display.

South Africa ran in six tries in an utterly dominant opening half. Hooker Malcolm Marx went over twice, adding to scores by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg, captain Siya Kolisi and Damian Willemse, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicking all six ​conversions.

Wilco Louw added another try after the break before Italy finally got off the mark with Federico Ruzza’s try, ⁠converted by Tommaso Allan. But the Springboks weren’t done, Paul de Villiers and Ethan Hooker adding to their side’s try count before full-time.

Having claimed maximum points from their three fixtures in July, the Springboks were top the southern hemisphere group ahead of New Zealand on points difference ahead of the northern series.

Italy, who ​lost all three of their southern series Tests, were without a string of ​key players, including captain Michele Lamaro and centre pairing Tommaso Menoncello and Juan Ignacio Brex, and had no answer to Rassie ‌Erasmus’ almost full-strength side.

It was one-way traffic from ​the off. Italy conceded an early penalty under their posts, but the visitors surprisingly opted to kick for three points, ⁠Feinberg-Mngomezulu opening their account from the tee.

The outhalf followed up with their first try of the afternoon on nine minutes, splitting the Italian defence with ​a dummy before racing in from 40 metres. The Springboks quickly added two driving lineout tries from Van den Berg and Marx.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu sent a booming 50-22 to set up Kolisi’s try before Willemse added another on 25 minutes.

Italy spent the final 10 minutes of the half reduced to 14 after Muhamed Hasa picked up a yellow card and Marx scored his second try from a maul.

With a 45-0 deficit at half-time, Italy looked on track for a record defeat, their 101-0 loss to the Springboks in 1999 representing the current measure. But the Italians improved somewhat after the break as the world champions eased up and mistakes began to creep in.

Italian lock Ruzza gave the home crowd something to cheer about, going over in the corner, but De Villiers went over after another unstoppable ​maul and Hooker ran in the final score on the stroke of full-time.

South Africa ​are in Paris on Friday to take on France before travelling to Dublin to take on Ireland, while Italy face Argentina and Fiji in their remaining northern series clashes.