Springboks player ratings versus Italy
The Springboks overcame a big hurdle on their way to qualification for the play-offs at this year’s World Cup when they beat Italy 49-3 on Friday.
Rassie Erasmus side scored seven tries on their way to victory, but they are still far from the finished product.
Most of those tries came when Italy were down to 14 men after Andrea Lovotti was shown a red card.
Warren Fortune rates the South African players.
15 WILLIE LE ROUX
He had a couple of try assists, but he is still not the Willie le Roux we know with a few errors and poor decisions plaguing his game.
5/10
14 CHESLIN KOLBE
The best wing in the world at the moment. He scored two tries, tackled like a man possessed and he was effective in the air once again.
9/10
13 LUKHANYO AM
He had his moments out wide and he put in some big hits on defence.
6/10
12 DAMIEN DE ALLENDE
It was one of his best games in a Bok jersey. He got his team over the advantage line and his ability to offload in contact was impressive as well.
7/10
11 MAKAZOLE MAPIMPI
His defence out wide was excellent and he had few good runs as well.
6/10
10 HANDRE POLLARD
It was a poor performance from the pivot. His attacking game is seriously lacking and a few of his kicks were aimless.
4/10
9 FAF DE KLERK
The ball to the Springbok backline was slow on several occasions. He was a bit predictable in this game.
5/10
8 DUANE VERMEULEN
The big man was powerful in open play with ball in hand and on defence.
7/10
7 PIETER-STEPH DU TOIT
It was a bit of mixed bag from the No.7, but he worked tirelessly around the park.
6/10
6 SIYAMTHANDA KOLISI (CAPTAIN)
He made his presence felt on defence on a few occasions, but he went missing for large periods again.
5/10
5 LODEWYK DE JAGER
He gave a good account of himself with ball in hand and in the set-pieces.
7/10
4 EBEN ETZEBETH
He was on top of his game defensively where he held up Italian players with his sheer strength. He did what was asked of him in the line-outs as well.
7/10
3 FRANS MALHERBE
Solid in the scrums before it became uncontested, but his work rate in other areas of the game is lacking.
4/10
2 MBONGENI MBONAMBI
Excellent in the set-pieces and the mauls. He was aggressive with ball in hand.
8/10
1 TENDAI MTAWARIRA
Dominated his opponent at scrum time early on he caused a few headaches with some bone-crunching tackles in open play.
6/10
Replacements:
16 MALLCOM MARX (On for Mbongeni Mbonambi, 51st min)
He was strong and abrasive with ball in hand when he came on and he scored a try as well.
7/10
17 STEVEN KITSHOFF (On for Tendai Mtawarira, 46th min)
He had a couple of good runs with ball in hand.
6/10
18 VINCENT KOCH (On for Frans Malherbe, 46th min)
Nothing special while he was on the field, but did his fair share of work in defence.
3/10
19 RG SNYMAN (On for Eben Etzebeth, 54th min)
Powerful in the collisions and he scored a try as well.
6/10
20 FRANCO MOSTERT (On for Lood de Jager, 61st min)
Very little impact off the bench.
3/10
21 FRANCOIS LOUW(On for Duane Vermeulen, 65th min)
Not enough time to be rated.
22 HERSCHEL JANTJIES (On for Faf de Klerk, 61st min)
He seemed to inject some speed into the game when he came on, but nothing too special.
5/10
23 FRANS STEYN (On for Makazole Mapimpi, 43rd min and for Lukhanyo Am, 71st min)
He did enough good work in open play during his two stints on the field.
6/10
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments