The Boks scored four unanswered tries in the first half of their Castle Lager Incoming Series Test in Gqeberha for a 24-0 lead and added three more in a second half that was always going to battle to match the splendid first half performance, while blanking Italy for the first time in 26 years.

Overall, it was a match that confirmed the Springboks’ status as the leading, most innovative Test playing team in the world as they started the match with yet another trick.

The Boks deliberately did not kick the ball 10 metres, which forced the first scrum of the match. The Italians got a free kick from it though, but in a blink, the hosts were back on attack and were stopped short of the line, regaining the momentum immediately.

Italy stopped that initial Bok thrust as well, but eight minutes in, the class of the world champions proved too much.

Grant Williams races clear for the first try of the Test.

From a good scrum, the ball was worked to the left with right wing Edwill van der Merwe coming into the line to create the overlap. Makazole Mapimpi was put in space and he provided the final pass to Grant Williams, who raced in to score a peach of a try. Manie Libbok just missed the conversion to the right, but the fire was lit and the 44,282 strong crowd hungry for a feast.

The instigator turned finisher soon after when Van der Merwe dotted down himself, courtesy of a wonderful Libbok pass. The conversion again went wide, but two tries in 16 minutes from wonderful attacking play kept the crowd buzzing.

With the stage set for more fire in the belly play by the Boks, it proved too hot to handle for Jasper Wiese, who was red-carded for a headbutt that would not even have made a WWE highlights reel, but the fact remained that the Boks were going to play an hour with a man down.

That prompted the “Andre Esterhuizen hybrid” experiment and the big midfielder was consigned to some extra work from early on.

An unforeseen addition was that Le Roux was going to have more opportunities with ball in hand with his centre in the scrum, and from such an engagement 30 minutes in, the 100-capped maverick came good as he joined the line, saw space and kicked ahead. Van der Merwe responded fastest and one bounce later the Bok wing gave his flyhalf an easier angle for the conversion, and his fullback a high five.

Edwill van der Merwe almost scored a hat-trick in his second Test.

The Boks’ box of tricks also saw Ox Nche coming on for Thomas du Toit early and soon, another social media highlight reel was created when Canan Moodie scored.

From a lineout, Esterhuizen charged hard and in the return play the ball was lobbed into the air to a jumping Ruan Nortje, who immediately set up a maul. That sucked some defenders in, Williams exploited the space with his pace and fed Moodie, who bounced the last two Italian defenders out of his tryline route.

The second half continued where it left off for the Boks with some good innovation on attack, but once again the card bogey struck with Wilco Louw sin-binned for a high tackle six minutes in, leaving the Boks with only 13 players on the field and almost a full half to play.

It was 14 against 13 soon though as Italian prop Danilo Fischetti was yellow carded for a deliberate infringement at the ruck.

An attack to the right, with a bullet pass from Le Roux setting Van der Merwe on his way was ruled forward and robbed the speedster of his third, but the crowd were on their feet immediately after as Malcolm Marx drove over, again from the manufactured midfield mail to Nortje. Libbok's third conversion made it 31-0 to the Boks, who were far from stopping to bring joy to the crowd and misery to their opponents.

Andre Esterhuizen on the charge.

Erasmus injected fresh legs to his backline with Cobus Reinach, Sasha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and debutant Ethan Hooker replacing Williams, Le Roux and Moodie respectively. Cobus Wiese kept the Grootdrink flag flying when he made his Test debut 55 minutes in, with Evan Roos also getting a run at No 8 while soon after Asenathi Ntlabakanye became the third new cap of the evening.

The bench did some good things, with Reinach quite busy and Hooker making good hits, but the star of the show remained Van der Merwe who never stopped, either chasing and winning high balls or making big tackles.

But what would a big Springbok performance be without a Mapimpi try, especially in the Eastern Cape?

Eight minutes from time, Mapimpi scored from a lineout move, with soft hands and fast feet bamboozling the Italians and giving the try scoring king some space on the left. He did not disappoint. Libbok kicked the conversion and 38-0 was a good reflection of the Boks’ dominance.

But the Boks had one more play to play with a minute to go. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who chased everyone and everything all evening, scored the final try from a lineout and when Libbok kicked the conversion from the corner it was the perfect way to end a memorable night for everyone in green and gold.

Scorers:

Springboks 45 (24) - Tries: Grant Williams, Edwill van der Merwe (2), Canan Moodie, Malcolm Marx, Makazole Mapimpi, Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Conversions: Manie Libbok (5).

Italy 0