sport

Preview: Italy v South Africa

Bumbling Boks: South Africa still searching for first win on tour

South Africa will be desperate to post a win - never mind a convincing one - against Italy in Udine on Saturday to make their end-of-year tour look a little less disastrous than it already is.

Two midweek defeats and a Test loss in the space of a fortnight confirms the world champs have been struggling so far on what was always going to be a tough European trip. And it's not going to get any easier.

The scorelines may read otherwise, but the battle-weary Boks have been comprehensively beaten on each occasion and the somewhat embarrassing results have only put a dampener on a successful year for the men in green and gold.

When the midweek 'dirt-trackers' weren't getting blown off the park against Leicester, the first-choice Boks were running around in boots filled with concrete in Toulouse. Any hope of making amends at Wembley Stadium, were quickly put to bed by a brave Saracens fightback and drop-goal to Derick Hougaard - a former Bok.

But maybe this is what you get if your coach insists on dragging players away on an end-of-season tour when they are clearly worn out. It's the price to pay for fatigue and lethargy. And to further complicate matters for Bok coach Peter de Villiers, Italy will be no push-over this weekend.

They showed against New Zealand last Saturday that they are closing the gap on the bigger nations, with their powerful scrum set to be another big test for the Springboks who will find it difficult to bounce back from a Test defeat to France where they were completely manhandled by the opposition.

There were a lot of unforced errors and South Africa's scrum failed to give the backline good first phase possession, which meant their attack couldn't get on the front foot. Bok forwards coach Gary Gold would have been working overtime leading up to Saturday's Test on this aspect, and it's anyone's guess whether we'll see a better showing against Italy.

The Italians pride themselves on their scrum and will fancy themselves up front, while the once feared Springbok fatties have taken a rather unexpected turn for the worst in their last few outings. To make matters worse, injuries in the camp have not helped the unsettled visitors.

Perhaps a forced change in the front row will be a blessing in disguise for South Africa as Free State Cheetahs duo Adriaan Strauss and Bok debutant Wian du Preez come in for the rested Beast Mtawarira and the injured Bismarck du Plessis respectively.

In front of a capacity crowd at San Siro last Saturday Italy competed well up front with the All Blacks, but a war of attrition and a couple of defensive lapses led to a 20-6 defeat - still one of Italy's best results against New Zealand.

Some wayward kicking from fly-half Craig Gower cost Italy some valuable points too, but another New Zealand victory over the Azzurri never looked in doubt and Italy will only be better prepared and a more confident unit from it.

In fact, it was the second time this year that the Italians left the field with their heads held high after making the All Blacks work hard for a win earlier this year - something is finally going right for Nick Mallett and his troops, and it's only a matter of time before they convert their hard work into a win.

The match will be played at another soccer stadium, the home ground of Serie A side Udinese in Udine. It can hold almost 42,000 spectators and organisers are hoping for another huge turnout like the San Siro encounter which set a record for a rugby match in Italy - 80,000 - dwarfing the attendances at Inter Milan and AC Milan soccer games in recent years.

So far some 20,000 tickets have been sold for the Stadio Friuli encounter. The chance of a repeat of the Milan sell-out were boosted on Tuesday when Bok wing star Bryan Habana avoided a ban for an alleged kick at French wing Vincent Clerc in Toulouse.

Italy have never beaten the South Africans, but the last time these two sides met in Cape Town last year, the Azzurri limited the damage to a 26-0 defeat. This was a far cry from a 1999 encounter in Durban when Italy suffered its biggest-ever defeat, a 101-1 drubbing.

Ones to watch:

For Italy: With Mauro Bergamasco getting bumped down to the bench, Simone Favaro steps into the veteran flanker's shoes. Italy will have taken heart from France's fiery performance at the breakdown, but Favaro will know he still has a big workload to get through when coming up against South Africa's prime fetcher Heinrich Brussouw. If there was any time for the 21-year-old Italian to put his hand up, it's now.

For South Africa: Called in to do the business in the absence of the rested Victor Matfield, is lock Andries Bekker. The man-mountain has been tasked to fill the massive void left by South Africa's line-out guru, but has plenty of experience behind him after lurking in Matfield's shadow for the last couple of years. Partnered by Bakkies Botha, Bekker will be the line-out go-to guy in Matfield's absence and should provide the Boks with a steady supply of possession - be it South Africa or Italy's feed.

Head to head: Martin Castrogiovanni v Wian du Preez. Loosehead prop Wian du Preez will make his South Africa debut against Italy on Saturday with Leicester Tiger's prop Martin Castrogiovanni's snarling teeth ready to welcome him. As international starts go it couldn't be any tougher against a player regarded as one of the best tighthead props in the business. Castrogiovanni gave New Zealand's Wyatt Crockett a torrid time last weekend in Milan and Du Preez knows he's going to be in for some similar treatment.

Previous results:
2008: South Africa won 26-0 in Cape Town
2001: South Africa won 54-26 in Genoa
2001: South Africa won 60-14 in Port Elizabeth
1999: South Africa won 101-0 in Durban
1999: South Africa won 74-3 in Port Elizabeth
1997: South Africa won 62-31 in Bologna
1995: South Africa won 40-21 in Rome

Prediction: South Africa should be heading into the weekend three wins to the good, but instead, they're under plenty of pressure to beat a second-tier union. Be that as it may, history still favours the Boks and they always seem to turn it on when they have their backs against the wall. South Africa to win by twelve points.

The teams:

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Matteo Pratichetti, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Craig Gower, 9 Simon Picone; 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Simone Favaro, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Ignacio Rouyet, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Mauro Bergamasco, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Gonzalo Canale.

South Africa:15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Adi Jacobs, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Tendai Mtawarira, 17 BJ Botha, 18 Victor Matfield, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Wynand Olivier.

Date: Saturday, November 21
Venue: Stadio Friuli, Udine
Kick-off: 15.00 (14.00 GMT; 16.00 SA time)
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Assistant referees: James Jones (Wales), Peter Allan (Scotland)
TMO: Hugh Watkins (Wales)