Best Boks vs Italy: Hooker, Halfbacks Shine

The Springboks condemned Italy to a harrowing Halloween hangover as they piled on the pain in a 66-7 slaughtering to resume their Nations Championship campaign in Turin on Saturday, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

Bok coach Rassie Erasmus went full metal jacket, fielding a full-strength side to ensure South Africa started the second half of the new competition where they left off, and his charges obliged by obliterating the Italians in front of a crowd stunned into silence.

Seemingly celebrating Halloween a week late, the men in Green and Gold were like something out of a horror movie, an army of ruthless monsters who put their helpless hosts through hell.

They scored more than a point a minute in the first half, running in six tries as they stormed into a 45-0 lead at the break, and added three more tries in the second stanza to complete the demolition job and strengthen their position at the top of the Southern Hemisphere standings.

After hardly a hiccup in the first half, errors did creep into the Boks’ game in the second 40, but it was nevertheless pure dominance by the double world champions.

Our top three Springbok standouts were:

Ethan Hooker

A dual dynamo, Hooker was a force of nature.

He was freakish in his ability to steamroll would-be tacklers and make metres even in the most confined of spaces, as well as his authority in the air and the seamless way he shifted to inside centre in the 58th minute.  

From his very first carry, when he sat down Ange Capuozzo, the Sharks super athlete showed he was in a dominant mood, and he never let up, making a match-high 15 carries and four line breaks.   

His tackle-breaking ability makes him a massive problem, as it did here, and it finally saw him beat two more defenders in the final play of the game to go over for a richly deserved try.

Standing 1.93m tall, the 23-year-old is one of the best aerial artists in the world and retained two box kicks in minutes 21 and 35, while he was strong in defence as well and snatched a turnover in the 52nd minute.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu

A smiling, winking assassin, Feinberg-Mngomezulu was feeling himself and it showed as he thrilled and racked up 26 points.

A generational talent, he showed his eye for a gap, extraordinary pace for a flyhalf and top-class finishing ability to score the opening try and was a perfect 10 out of 10 off the tee, slotting a rout-starting penalty goal and converting all nine tries.

The Stormers superstar dazzled with his distribution, which included slick offloads and floating long balls, while he produced a brilliant 50:22 and made the biggest hit of the game on Monty Ioane, who made his 50th appearance for the Azzurri.

Like Hooker, he showed his versatility as he moved to fullback for the final quarter, but unlike Hooker, he dropped off in the second half, making a number of mistakes; hence why we voted Hooker our MVP.

Morne van den Berg

Van den Berg continued his breakthrough year in the Green and Gold with another stellar showing.

A pint-sized painmaker, he caused plenty of panic and misery with his pinpoint kicking and pounced in a flash to score South Africa’s second try.

What’s more, the Lions livewire controlled the pace of the game, offered exemplary service and was a little demon in defence, even delivering a late jackal after he’d already been announced as the Man of the Match.