14-man Springboks score 7 tries and blank Italy

GQEBERHA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa smothered Italy 45-0 with only 14 men at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and swept their two-test rugby series on Saturday.

No. 8 Jasper Wiese was sent off in the 22nd minute for head-butting Italy prop Danilo Fischetti. His first international red card spoiled the chance to play with his younger brother Cobus, who made his Springboks debut in the second half.

South Africa had two tries by then and scored five more. Even when it had 13 players for 10 minutes after prop Wilco Louw was sin-binned for head-on-head contact, South Africa still scored. Winger Edwill van der Merwe was denied a hat-trick try by a forward pass so the pack engineered a lineout drive for Malcolm Marx to dot down.

Its the third time South Africa has blanked Italy. The last time was 17 years ago.

A depleted Italy — 10 players in single caps — never looked like scoring a try and didn’t have a shot at the posts.

“To keep them to nil with 13 players on the field was pretty cool,” Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus said.

A strong response was expected from world champion South Africa after it was humbled by Italy’s fightback in Pretoria last weekend. South Africa led 28-3 at halftime but won only 42-24.

This time, the Springboks led 24-0 at halftime and never let their foot off Italy’s throat.

They even tried some innovative plays. The opening kickoff deliberately didn’t go 10 meters to have a go at Italy’s scrum. But Italy got a free kick. And in open play they twice created a driving maul by lifting a player lineout style, both times leading to tries.

“Sometimes those things work and sometimes they don’t, and you have to take it on the chin if they don’t work,” Erasmus said. “We won’t be able to do them again for a few games as people have seen them now.”

The Springboks retained from Pretoria only seven players, including fullback Willie le Roux, who became the eighth Bok to play 100 tests, 12 years after his debut against the same side. Even with a much changed team, South Africa still started 11 Rugby World Cup winners.

One of them, scrumhalf Grant Williams, scored the opening try thanks to his Sharks clubmates on the wings, Van der Merwe and Makazole Mapimpi.

Van der Merwe dived beside the right corner flag for the second try and his second in his second test. After Jasper Wiese was marched, the winger also got the third try, the best of the match.

Loosehead Ox Nche had just arrived to shore up the Boks front row and destroyed an Italy scrum. Le Roux then chipped the ball and a kind bounce allowed Van der Merwe to dribble the ball to behind the posts and score.

Center Canan Moodie bagged the fourth try just before halftime when he smashed through two defenders.

Yellow cards dropped both teams to 14 players when Marx scored. But as the benches cleared the game lost its shape and it took more than 20 minutes for the Boks to score again. Beautiful handling set up Mapimpi’s 33rd test try.

In the dying seconds, replacement hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels scored in the corner and Mannie Libbok converted from the sideline, his fifth success from seven shots.

South Africa plays Georgia next Saturday in Mbombela.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby