Kwagga says Boks did not meet their standards against Italy

Springbok loose forward Kwagga Smith said there were several areas they needed to improve after their frustrating 42–24 victory against Italy on Saturday.

The world champions hosted the 10th-ranked side (which was also understrength) at Loftus, with the rugby world expecting a big win, even though Italy had been playing well.

They beat Namibia 73–6 a week ago. Additionally, since the start of last year, they have beaten Wales (twice), Georgia, Japan, Tonga, and Scotland, while drawing against France and losing to Ireland by five points and England by three.

The 18-point victory almost felt like a loss, however. While Springbok players and coach Rassie Erasmus were dejected after the game, the Italy squad were all smiles.

Boks did not meet their standards

“We want to be the best team in the world,” Smith said. “You’ve got to be honest with yourself. If you know you didn’t play to your ability and you didn’t play well, although you win by 18 points, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about your standards and living up to those standards.”

He said the Springboks knew Italy would be physical after analysing them this week. “They really did well, even though we knew it was coming. All credit to them.”

The scoreline would have looked different if not for Italy’s disallowed try and another that was held up, while the Springboks had one try disallowed.

But it was Italy’s try from a driving maul starting around the South Africans’ 22, that silenced the crowd and appeared to emotionally hurt the Springboks, who are traditionally dominant in pack battles.

“We are disappointed in that. We never want to give away a maul try,” Smith added. “I think in the last three years we didn’t give away a lot of maul tries. So that obviously hurts. We will definitely look at that and see where we can rectify to be better next week.”

Springboks fail to maintain momentum against Italy

After leading 28–3 at the break, the Springboks lost all their momentum in the second half, scoring 14 points against Italy’s 21 in that period.

It all seemed to change after Vincent Tshituka’s try was disallowed for an earlier obstruction. Smith said the Springboks should have “kept punching” after that.

“We allowed them in, and that obviously gave them a lot of confidence and momentum.” He said momentum is hard to stop when you cannot get continuity, “and the breakdown is a mess every time, and the ball spits out. It is difficult because you are just playing scrappy rugby, literally just fixing mistakes the whole time.”

He said the South Africans would have to analyse how they lost the breakdown battle.