After seeing off France last week South Africa’s next assignment in the November International Rugby Series sees them take on Italy in Turin on Saturday
Italy v Australia, Saturday 15th November, Turin, KO 14:40 (South African time)
Referee: James Doleman (NZR)
Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (NZR), Jérémy Rozier (FFR)
TMO: Tual Trainini (FFR)
Weather Forecast - Turin
Italy:
Italy took on Australia in Udine last weekend, they were supported from +15.5 to +11.5 points on the bookmakers main handicap line and they came out on top 26-19. Monty Ioane and Louis Lynagh scored second half tries for Italy, both converted by Paolo Garbisi who also landed 4 penalties.
Italy were in South Africa in July where they lost the first test 42-24 and the second 45-0. They had started that tour with a 73-6 win in Namibia.
In the Six Nations earlier this year Italy lost in Scotland (31-19) before beating Wales in a home fixture (22-15). They went on to lose at home to France (73-24), in England (47-24) and they went down 22-17 at home to Ireland.
In the November internationals of 2024 Italy lost at home to Argentina (50-18) and New Zealand (29-11) either side of a 0-17 victory over Georgia.
After this Italy will host Chile
South Africa:
The Boks came through their much-anticipated clash with France in Paris with a 32-17 win. The bookmakers struggled to name a favourite in the pre-match betting and a red card for Lood de Jager late in the first half looked set to make the second 40 minutes a real struggle with France leading 14-13 at the break. Numerical parity was restored when France had a man sent to the bin and from just over 20 minutes out the Boks pulled away. France scored 2 ties and Cobus Reinach, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu went over for the Boks.
South Africa began their end of year program against Japan at Wembley and they scored 9 tries on their way to a 61-7 victory, easily covering a pre-match handicap line which had opened at -38.5 points.
Prior to that South Africa clinched the Rugby Championship title, winning 4 and losing 2 of their matches.
South Africa’s mid year program was fairly low key but they reeled off wins over the Barbarians (54-7), Italy (42-24 and 45-0) and Georgia (55-10).
In the November international series of 2024 South Africa won in Scotland (32-15), in England (29-20) and Wales (45-12).
After this the Boks will take on Ireland and finally Wales.
Recent Head to Head
Jul 2025 INT Gqeberha South Africa 45-0 Italy
Jul 2025 INT Pretoria South Africa 42-24 Italy
Nov 2022 INT Genoa Italy 21-63 South Africa
Team News
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex (captain), 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Ross Vintcent, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Riccardo Favretto, 21 David Odiase, 22 Martin Page-Relo, 23 Tommaso Allan
South Africa: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Ethan Hooker, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Marco van Staden, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Boan Venter
Replacements: 16 Gerhard Steenekamp, 17 Wilco Louw, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Ruan Nortje, 20 Andre Esterhuizen, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok
The Betting
Average early show, subject to change
Italy +21.5 points at 9/10
South Africa -21.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this week’s internationals will be posted on this blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.