Boks heavy favourites to floor Italy - bookies

Despite the Springboks' recent woes, and Italy's hot streak, local bookmakers still believe the world champions will easily win Saturday's Test in Genoa.

The Boks are under the pressure after losing their opening two year-end Tests to Ireland in Dublin (19-16) and France in Marseile (30-26), while there's also the added distraction of SA Rugby’s director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, being handed a two-game ban by World Rugby for highlighting refereeing errors on Twitter.

On the other hand, the Italians are on a hot streak, having defeated Australia, Samoa and Wales in their last three outings.

But local bookmakers, Betway, believe the Boks remain firm favourites. South Africa can be backed at 1.04 odds, while the Azzurri are rank outsiders at 9.00 odds. A draw can be backed at 35/1 odds.

The Boks have won 14 of 15 Tests against Italy over the years, with Italy's sole victory coming in Florence in 2016 when they won 20-18.

The Boks rebounded to win 35-6 in Padua in 2018 and 49-3 in Fukuroi City during the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Saturday's clash kicks off at 15:00 (SA time).

Saturday's Test at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris kicks off at 15:00 (SA time).

Teams:

Italy

15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti 

Substitutes: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 David Sisi, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Edoardo Padovani, 23 Tommaso Menoncello  

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Damian de Allende, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10