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South Africa’s Springboks and Samoa opened their campaigns in the Castle Lager Incoming Series with wins over Italy and Scotland in Durban on Saturday, with the hosts leading the log after earning a bonus point for their five tries in a 44-10 win.
Earlier, Samoa beat Scotland for the first time in 9 attempts with a 27-17 victory.
The series now move to Nelspruit’s Mbombela Stadium where the Springboks will play Scotland and Samoa will face Italy.
The two top-ranked sides will face off at Loftus Versfeld on 22 June in the final of the series.
The Springboks started and ended in great fashion against Italy with two tries in the first half hour of the match giving them a healthy buffer against a determined Italian side.
The visitors came back strongly in the second half and scored a well-deserved try, but a moment of magic by Man of the Match, Bryan Habana, provided the Springboks with a very strong finish.
Habana raced through from the halfway line to score, beating several defenders on the way to extend his test try scoring record to 48. Two more tries followed as the Springboks finally subdue a combative Italian side.
“I was very happy with Bryan’s performance today,” coach Heyneke Meyer said afterwards.
“It seems that when he is playing well, the team is doing well too. He is still enjoying his rugby and I asked him to express himself out there, which he did,” Meyer said.
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers was happy that his side could settle the nerves after a yellow card early in the second half, when Italy also scored their try.
“We needed to calm down and steadied the ship, something we did very well, so I am very happy about that,” he said.
Jano Vermaak (hamstring) is the only real injury concern at this stage and Meyer indicated that he will make some changes to the team for the Scotland match.
