A Saturday lunchtime kick-off is not supposed to feel like an occasion. This one did. By the time the second pot of tea was made, the Boks had their bonus point. By the break I had stopped counting tries and started doing sums. Forty-five to nil. Away from home.
Full disclosure: this seat is green and gold, it always has been, and what follows is opinion. So here is one Springboks fan view: France on Friday is the only exam that counts this month, and Saturday, as lovely as it was, told us very little.
Couch, tea and nine reasons to jump up
Let me enjoy it first, because we are allowed to. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu put 26 points on the board and did not miss a single kick. Malcolm Marx rode the lineout drive over twice, and Siya Kolisi finished off another, because this pack treats the maul like a family heirloom. Morne van den Berg scooted in from close range. Then the Bomb Squad trooped on early in the second half, and Wilco Louw and Paul de Villiers both scored as replacements, which is precisely what that bench exists to do.
Nine tries. Nine excuses to spill your tea. Italy have now beaten us once in 20 attempts, and the full story of how it unfolded is in our match report. I am not going to retell it here. I want to talk about the feeling, and the feeling was more complicated than the score.
Because somewhere around the half-hour, the joy arrived with a question stapled to it. Business Day has the four-try bonus point wrapped up before the 25-minute mark. That is wonderful. It is also a little suspicious. When a Test is settled before the half-hour, you start to wonder who exactly you have been beating.
Why Turin was only the warm-up
The honest answer is a very weakened Italy. By SA Rugby magazine’s count, Italy were without 16 players, their captain Michele Lamaro included, and it showed. The Associated Press had Italy gaining 60 metres in the whole first half, while the Springbok defence was called on for just 25 tackles before the break.
Compare that with a year ago in the same stadium. As our preview reminded us, Franco Mostert was sent off after 11 minutes in November 2025 and the Boks had to grind out a 32-14 win. That was a test of character. Saturday was a different kind of afternoon altogether.
The table does matter, and it is tight. Four bonus-point wins from four have left the Springboks on 20 points, the most anyone could have. A few hours later the All Blacks won 43-21 at Murrayfield with a bonus point of their own, and FloSports has them level with South Africa on 20 in the southern group. If the format still puzzles you, our guide to how the Nations Championship works sets out why that race will shape finals weekend.
And then there is Paris. The last time the Boks went to the Stade de France, on 8 November 2025, France led 14-13 at the break, Lood de Jager was sent off just before half-time, and it was Kolisi’s 100th Test. South Africa won 32-17 with 14 men. That night was itself a rematch of the 2023 World Cup quarter-final at the same ground, which the Boks won by a single point, 29-28, on the road to a fourth world title.
The Springboks fan view: France is the real exam
Here is my side, and I am taking it. Turin should change nothing about how we feel heading into Friday. If anything, it should make us slightly nervous. A 66-7 win over a side that could hardly leave its own half rewards everything this team does well and examines almost nothing it might do badly. Twenty-five first-half tackles is not a defensive workout. It is a walk in the park.
France at home on a Friday night, kick-off 22:10 SAST, is the opposite. Les Bleus in front of their own supporters, a side that has lost to us twice in Paris since 2023, and a crowd that will celebrate every Springbok knock-on like a public holiday. I doubt the French have forgotten either of those nights. That is where we learn whether the set piece holds when the other pack shoves back, and whether Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s perfect afternoon survives 80 minutes of real pressure.
I want a win, obviously. But I want something more particular than that. I want to see the Boks win an ugly half: down on the scoreboard, under the pump, a decision going against them, and still finding a way. Turin gave us no ugly halves at all, and you do not learn much about a team from 40 minutes of pure sunshine on the scoreboard.
With New Zealand level on points, every bonus point from here could decide who heads to Twickenham as group winners. Friday is not a free hit.
So by all means watch the highlights this week. Watch all nine tries twice. Then put them away. Ireland in Dublin waits on 21 November, and Twickenham hosts finals weekend at the end of the month, but none of it feels the same if Friday goes wrong. Turin was the warm-up. Paris is the exam. Bring the jersey, bring the scarf, and bring your nerves.