STAT ATTACK | There's still work to be done, but this Springbok side isn't boring

There are a variety of reasons why the Springboks have only won one of their three encounters on their end-of-year tour.

Rassie Erasmus has, infamously, highlighted one of those and consequently copped another ban from World Rugby for it, but it's also eminently valid to argue that South Africa's decision-making on, attack as well as execution in general, still needs improvement.

However, what even the most basic match stats on this trip illustrate is that Jacques Nienaber's charges can't be classified as a one-dimensional, attritional and kicking-orientated outfit anymore.

To be fair, the Boks' switch to a more enterprising brand of play commenced in the second week of their Rugby Championship tour when they beat the Wallabies 24-8 in Sydney and they've never really looked back.

While it's true that nine of their 13 tries on this trip came in this past weekend's eventual romp against Italy in Genoa, it's nonetheless notable that the South Africans would've outscored the Irish in the low-scoring affair in Dublin if the forward passes in both of the home side's tries were picked up and arguably should have done so too against France had it not been for Sipili Falatea's controversial late score.

Regardless, the Boks have made more running metres than their opponents in all three of their matches.

Their 324m from 111 runs represented a net gain of almost 3 metres per run, in contrast to Ireland's 254 from 110, which amounts to 2.3 metres per run.

South Africa's inspired attitude following the red-carding of Pieter-Steph du Toit was also evident against France, where they dwarfed the Tricolores by gaining 423 running metres to 285.

Unsurprisingly, the meeting with Italy was particularly lopsided - 570m against a mere 167m.

The Boks