Van den Berg after Italy: “There’s a lot to improve on”
Morne van den Berg admitted that while the 66-7 victory over Italy in Turin was fantastic to build momentum going into Friday’s clash against France in Paris, they will review the match thoroughly to...
The Test against France will be followed by a clash against Ireland in Dublin next week Saturday, before the competition wraps up with a jam-packed Finals Weekend in London the weekend of 27 to 29 November.
The Bok scrumhalf, who was named Player of the Match in the Boks’ opening match on the Nations Championship Northern Series, said the accolade was special and that he will always cherish wearing the green and gold, but there is still work to be done.
“There’s a lot to improve on in our game, which is actually quite exciting,” Van den Berg said after the game, in which he scored [one of the Boks' nine tries](https://springboks.rugby/news-features/articles/2026/11/7/brilliant-boks-smash-italy-in-turin).
“We’ll study the video and see exactly where we can improve, but credit to Italy for putting us under pressure in the second half.
“They are an incredible team and nation, and we expected that, but that’s perhaps where we could have been better. They are incredible people and warriors.”
While the Boks were disappointed with their second half performance after building an impressive 45-0 lead at half-time, he said getting the desired result was vital going forward in the inaugural competition.
“It was especially important to get our game and the things we worked on during the week right,” said Van den Berg.
“Obviously it was important for us to get momentum going into next week’s game, so the result was very important.”
The Springboks made the journey from Italy to France on Saturday evening and arrived at their base later that night to allow them to turn to their focus immediately to Friday’s match, which kicks off at 22h10 (SA time) and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.
Source: Original report at SA Rugby.