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2025 Winter Internationals
South Africa v Italy
Loftus Versfeld
Pretoria, South Africa
Saturday, 5 July 2025
Kick-off is at 17h10 CAT
South Africa will continue their preparations for the 2025 Rugby Championship when they play host to Italy at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, July 5.
The Springboks enjoyed a hugely successful 2024 season, winning 11 of their 13 matches and lifting the Rugby Championship trophy for the first time since 2019.
Rassie Erasmus' side kicked off their 2025 campaign with an emphatic 54-7 victory over the Barbarians at the Cape Town Stadium on June 28 which saw Vincent Tshituka score two tries on his test debut.
Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Lood de Jager and Damian de Allende also touched down as the reigning world champions recorded their biggest win over the Baa-Baas.
The Boks have an impressive record against the Blues, emerging victorious in 15 of their 16 encounters, with their sole defeat (20-18) coming in Florence on 19 November 2016.
Erasmus still sees room for improvement despite the historic win against the Barbarians in a rain-swept Cape Town and is looking forward to playing in drier conditions in Pretoria.
"We won't get carried away with this performance," Erasmus said. "Certainly, some of the newer guys showed us that they can do it at this level, but we'll layer them in.
"Some of the half gaps and some of the line breaks we made would have stuck if the weather had been drier. We can't wait to play on a dry pitch and improve on our attack.
"We want to get better, the next three matches we'll be trying to focus on us before we hit the Castle Lager Rugby Championship."
Italy will be buoyed by their crushing 73-6 triumph over Namibia in Windhoek on June 27 when Jacopo Trulla led the charge with a hat-trick of tries.
Gonzalo Quesada's side endured a difficult time in the 2025 Six Nations Championship earlier this year, although they did manage to beat Wales 22-15 on February 8.
Head-to-Head:
Matches - 16
South Africa wins - 15
Italy wins - 1
Draws - 0
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