The Boks extended their lead on the world rankings over New Zealand on the weekend, and despite tenth-placed Italy on Saturday, Brown and Springbok loose forward Marco van Staden said they expected a colossal encounter against the Italians in front of their home crowd.

The Boks travelled to Italy via Bologna on Sunday, and immediately started their preparations for the match on Monday with their first field training session.

“The France game was massive and it had been built up for a long time,” said Brown.

“There was a lot of media in France about the team trying to get revenge (after the 2023 RWC), but now that’s done, and the whole team has moved on to focusing on Italy.

“If you watched them play against Australia, you’d know they are going to be a tough team, and this weekend is going to be a big challenge for us.

“They are very passionate at home, much like the French, so we’ve got to make sure we prepare as well as we can and tick every box like we did against France.”

Zooming in on the threats Italy pose, Brown said: “They are a physical side, and they play differently to France. They pose other challenges with ball in hand, and they are also coached very much like an Argentinean team, who like to throw the ball around.

“Their game has improved in the last couple of years, and they are a dangerous side, so we have to make sure we understand their threats and prepare as well as we can for them.

“They were outstanding against Australia. They pose a massive threat at the breakdown because they won numerous turnovers on Australian ball there, but they are also very dangerous when they get space and opportunities, so we are not taking them lightly, and we’ll prepare accordingly.

“If our preparation is off, there’s no doubt they are going to be very dangerous on Saturday.”

Marco van Staden.

Van Staden, who started both Tests against Italy earlier this year in South Africa, shared Brown’s views: “They are a team with a lot of passion, and they play with intensity. It will be even more so this weekend with their home crowd behind them. That has a big influence on the way they pitch up on the field.

“They did very well against us in South Africa and placed us under pressure in some areas, so we know they are going to go out there with a lot of passion and intensity.”

Asked what areas the Boks felt they needed to improve on from last week’s 32-17 victory against France, Brown said: “We always want to have 15 men on the field, so we have to try to make sure that we don’t have any of those moments where we lose a player. But I have to commend the team for the effort and physicality they played with last week.”

Brown gave good news regarding injuries in the camp and said although there were no injury concerns going into this match, they were managing the players as well as possible following the physically taxing match at Stade de France.

“We have a lot of sore bodies, so recovery has been massive for us, but we have no injury concerns,” said Brown. “Obviously, Lood (de Jager – who received a red card in the first half against France) has to go through a hearing, so we won’t find out if he’s available for selection until after that.

“We’ll hopefully know by Wednesday what the status is with him. Both Lood and the sore bodies were part of the delay in announcing our team.”

With all the depth at loose forward within the Bok squad, Van Staden said it was a group effort to maintain that intensity and training on the field on Saturday against Italy.

“It was a great game over the weekend and the intensity the players showed was fantastic,” said Van Staden. “As a team we all buy into the plans and prepare as well as possible for each game, even if it’s to help the other players, so that intensity is definitely valuable for us.”

The match kicks off at 14h40 (SA Time) and will be broadcast live on SuperSport’s Grandstand and Rugby channels.