It will be the third time this year that South Africa and the Azzurri face each other, with the Springboks having won both of the previous Tests. The Springboks claimed 42-24 and 45-0 victories at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha, respectively, earlier in the year as they kicked off their international season.

The Six Nations outfit will be eager to atone for those defeats and will certainly remember their historic 20-18 triumph over the Boks in Florence, almost exactly nine years to the day.

André Esterhuizen and Marco van Staden. Photo: Springboks

Italy will be fired up at the prospect of facing the world champions for a third time this year after managing to stun Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies with a 26-19 victory in Udine on the weekend.

Springbok flanker Marco van Staden, who is versatile enough to play at hooker if the need arises, said he expected a proper tussle at the breakdown as the Azzurri have proven that they are good at it, and they also have hard-grafting loose forwards.

“They put Australia under a lot of pressure at the breakdown, and we could see it when they played us in the two Tests at home earlier in the year,” said the Bulls player known as ‘Eskom’.

“That’s a massive focus for them, and I think they got a lot of reward out of that on the weekend. So, we’re expecting a hard battle at the breakdown.”

Van Staden conceded they have a very good back row, and it’s not just at the breakdown that they will be tested.

“We saw in South Africa that they have very hard-working loose forwards, and they get around the park, they get through a lot of work, especially at the breakdowns,” Van Staden added.

André Esterhuizen. Photo: Morgan Piek

“They’ll definitely come hard at the breakdown, they carry well, and their other set-pieces are solid too. I think their lineout contesting is good, and they are a strong scrumming team, so we expect them to come at us hard.”

Speaking about centre André Esterhuizen’s new role as a so-called hybrid player, Van Staden added that the big Sharks midfielder has everything it takes to be a world-class forward, but there’s just one small detail still missing.

“André is definitely a genuine forward now. Against Japan, he scored by coming around the corner with the forwards, and now against France, he’s scored off a maul,” Van Staden added.

“We just need to get his ears ugly – then he’ll be a proper forward. But we’ll sort that out. André’s been massive for the team, and the role he plays, especially on the weekend, helped us a lot.”

Saturday’s Test between the Azzurri and Springboks at the San Siro in Turin kicks off at 14:40.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek mvh