In the autumn, the men’s national rugby union teams meet in a series of matches, the Nations Series, between teams from the Southern Hemisphere and teams from the Northern Hemisphere. On Saturday 8 November, Italy won against Australia: an incredible result, against the odds and against stronger opponents. Tomorrow, Saturday 15 November, Italy will face a more difficult match against South Africa, the strongest team in the world, winners of the last two World Cups.
Therefore, it is even more difficult to imagine a win against South Africa, but it will be an interesting match to evaluate Italy’s level, as well as important to provide continuity, as some coaches say, before the easier matches (the last of this National Series) against Chile, and ahead of the 2026 Six Nations.
A big defeat at once would be a bad sign. A defeat, perhaps by a few points and after an even and hard-fought first half, was to come However good results. A win would be a great result, much bigger and more important than a win against Australia. Prior to last Saturday, Italy’s previous win against Australia was in 2022 (the first). The last (and so far only) match against South Africa was in 2016.
In the match played on 8 November in Udine, Italy ended the first half trailing (12–9), but thanks to three free kicks from Paolo Garbisi they managed to keep Australia to just a few points: a basic thing in rugby, where a try (and subsequent conversion) is enough to score 7 (5+2) at once. In the second half, Italy scored two tries with Monty Ioane (he was born in Australia but plays for Italy since 2020) and Louis Lynagh, born in Treviso and son of Michael Lynagh, 1991 world champion with Australia. The match ended 26-19 for Italy.
It was a high-tempo match, in which Italy appeared compact, concrete and well-organised. Of course, on the other hand there are teams that are experiencing better times. Australian 15-a-side rugby has been in dire straits for many years: due to internal competition from similar sports such as 13-a-side rugby and particularly Australian rules football, but also due to management issues and sporting cycles.
However, Australia is still ranked seventh in the world, followed by Italy in tenth place. There are some disadvantages, but there are also many advantages of Italy: «Against Italy they were not great», wrote Guardian about Australia, “but it’s not bad either”. Comparing this year’s victory with that of 2022, former player Tommaso Castello said: «The victory was a one-off, a sudden and unexpected episode. But this time it was different: from the way the team organized and managed the match, it was clear that this belonged to that level. This is not a surprise, not an impromptu exploit, but confirmation of real growth.”
Matt Faessler plays Italy (or rather part of Italy), on November 8 in Udine (Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)
The growth Castello talks about has a lot to do with Argentinian coach Gonzalo Quesada, who arrived at the start of 2024. With him, Italy became more solid, versatile and disciplined, and he – interviewed by Corriere della Sera – spoke like this, in football terms, about his rugby: «I like Guardiola, but I also like Simeone’s football, someone who wants to compete. However, Italy cannot be Atlético Madrid, they do not have the strength of England. Our strengths have to be speed and group.”
Speaking of Argentinian coaches, and coaches in other sports, Julio Velasco, coach of Argentina’s women’s national volleyball team, also recently visited Quesada’s work. Velasco said, in a phrase that is very familiar to him and very appropriate to the particularities of Italian rugby, that he cannot think – not now or in the near future – of being the strongest, of always winning (as Velasco’s national team does):
“Team work does not always mean winning, but succeeding. Sometimes the opponent is stronger and therefore even though we do what we have to do, he loses (…). Help between players in team sports does not have to be an ethical issue. If it is, that’s even better, but it should be part of the game.”
Velasco also said he played rugby when he was “little”, but only for one year.
In 2024 Italy had its best Six Nations (a tournament between Europe’s strongest teams, which has been played since 2000), in 2025 its performance was slightly worse, but still managed to win against Wales.
In the summer, in another series of international matches, there were two away defeats against South Africa, in two matches played in July: first 42-24 (a good result, considering the difference between the two teams) and then 45-0 (clearly a bad result, especially considering the score of zero points).
However, South Africa is by far the best rugby team in the world, coached by Rassie Erasmus, considered by many to be the “master” of rugby. They have won the last two World Cups and the last two editions of the Rugby Championship, a southern hemisphere tournament featuring Australia, Argentina and New Zealand.
Celebrations after Vincent Koch’s goal, in July in Pretoria, South Africa (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Despite being the best team in the world, South Africa still showed some gaps: in the summer, playing at home, they allowed Australia to overturn a 22–0 lead in the first game of the Rugby Championship. And more generally, the team is sometimes criticized for being at the end of its cycle (i.e. consisting of players who are in a decline phase) and also for having moments where they play below their capabilities. It’s also true that it came off the back of a convincing win (especially after finishing with one man less) against France, winners of the last Six Nations.
“Some say they are getting older, I say they are getting wiser and calmer,” Erasmus said of his players.
In rugby, rugby is played with 15 people. Ahead of Saturday’s match, Italy will have only replaced one player compared to the win against Australia. South Africa will replace 11 players compared to those who started against France (also taking a bit of a risk in terms of who will be on the bench). It was a sign that against Italy, South Africa thought they could afford few turnovers, but also evidence of how deep the South African team is.
Commenting on this choice, Quesada said: «We have to try to put pressure on them to see if all these players, who rarely play together and are not very familiar with each other, can stay fluid and express their potential. They have a lot of players who are capable of making a difference individually, but it’s up to us to put them under pressure because this is a group that has never played together, they have never played together, they probably don’t have a lot of automatic mechanisms. Rugby, after all, is an interconnected game.”
In the last thirty years, Italy and South Africa have met 18 times: the Springboks have won 17 times: the widest margin was 101-0 in 1999, the smallest margin (aside from Italy’s win in 2016) was 22-6 in 2014.
The match will be played at the Allianz Stadium in Turin from 13.40, and can be watched on Sky and Rai.
