The undefeated Springboks will resume their Nations Championship campaign against winless Italy at Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday.
South Africa began their campaign in July with wins over England, Scotland and Wales. In November, they will play Italy, France and Ireland away before the finals weekend on November 27-29.
The top teams in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres will face off in the final. Currently, there is almost nothing to separate the Springboks and the All Blacks in the Southern Hemisphere standings. Both have a perfect 15 points from three games, but the Boks have a points difference of +81 compared to New Zealand's +51.
The All Blacks will face Scotland, Wales and England in their away games - a relatively favourable lineup on paper compared to the Springboks. At home, New Zealand fended off a France side which was missing several key players and then Italy and Ireland before their 3-1 Rugby's Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series defeat to the Boks.
An experimental Springboks side lost 42-38 to the Wallabies in a one-off Test after that tour. That can be chalked up partially to fatigue, but now that the Nations Championship points are being tallied up again and the Boks have a tough fixture list, there is no room for any more missed opportunities this year.
Key details
Date: Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1:40 p.m. CAT (12:40 p.m. CET, 11:40 a.m. GMT)
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Turin
How to watch: SuperSport will air the game in South Africa. The Nations Championship's official broadcasters also include ITV, S4C and Virgin Media (UK and Ireland, TF1 (France), Sky Italia (Italy), Nine (Australia), Sky New Zealand, WOWOW in Japan and ESPN in Argentina.
ESPN will also provide blow-by-blow coverage of the game on our digital platforms, including our website.
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: James Doleman (NZR) and Sam Grove-White (SRU)
TMO: Brett Cronan (RA)
Foul Play Review Officer: Mike Adamson (SRU)
Team news
There are few surprises in the Springbok team, given they have had to select a team without the injured Eben Etzebeth, Cheslin Kolbe, Andre Esterhuizen, Handre Pollard and Yaqeen Ahmed. Cameron Hanekom makes the bench despite a minor back strain in the Bulls' win over the Scarlets on Saturday.
Italy, meanwhile, are far from full strength with usual captain Michele Lamaro one of up to 15 players who have been out of the training group due to injuries. Meanwhile, a 16th - Marco Riccioni - has been out due to personal reasons. Giacomo Nicotera captains the side in the absence of Lamaro.
Springboks: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (C), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok.
Italy: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (C), 1 Muhamed Hasa
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan
Stats
South Africa have conceded 22 tries in their last five Tests, but still beat the All Blacks 3-1 in the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series before their defeat to the Wallabies.
Italy have only ever beaten the Springboks once - 20-18 in Florence in November 2016, while Allister Coetzee was in charge of the Boks.