Sport

World Cup over for Italian rugby team: South Africa goes through to the quarters

2 September 2025

TOPSHOT - Il mediano d'apertura sudafricano Libbie Janse van Rensburg (C) si stacca per segnare una meta durante la partita della pool D della Coppa del Mondo di rugby femminile tra Italia e Sudafrica allo York Community Stadium, York, Inghilterra settentrionale, il 31 agosto 2025. (Foto di Paul ELLIS / AFP)

4' min read

YORK - Game over for the Azzurri of rugby at the World Cup. Two matches, two defeats, and the qualification to the quarter-finals (conquered for the first time in the previous edition of the World Cup, New Zealand 2021) is already blurred. The match against Brazil remains to be played and it will be a victory, without this substantially changing the balance: negative it is, negative it will remain. From then on, one can only watch what the others do, until the final act, the final in the already sold-out Twickenham stadium. Eighty-two thousand spectators: an astounding success for women's rugby, in the country where rugby was born, the same country that is now pushing its national team - the 'Red Roses' - towards the title.

But back to last weekend. In front of six thousand fans (and enthusiasts, of course...), after Australia and the USA had staged a truly spectacular match the night before - again at the Community Stadium in York - which ended in a 31-all tie, on Sunday Italy gambled it all in a sort of play-off against South Africa, which it had always beaten on the three occasions on which the two teams had met. But this time it went badly: the girls in green showed undoubted improvements in their game and at that point their obvious physical superiority counted for a lot.

Not that the Azzurri did not struggle and did not find brilliant combinations several times. The result, 34-29 (first half 17-12), and the goal count, 5-4 for the victorious team, tell of a hard-fought game. Fought to the very end, if it is true that the decisive try came six minutes from the end and that in the remaining time coach Fabio Roselli's team had somehow managed to pull ahead. But problem No. 1, once the opponent's scrum was contained after a worrying start with a goal conceded in the second minute, consisted in an insufficient dose of accuracy, hence an excessive number of mistakes, in passing as well as in displacement kicks (an aspect, the latter, that continues to strongly limit our game). Too much waste, in a match like this.

Of course, there was a lot of pressure to deal with and a couple of injuries: Sara Tounesi, the player with the greatest physical impact, went out after about ten minutes and the experienced Michela Sillari, a defensive pillar between the three quarters and the best kicker between the posts, did not make it to the end of the first half.

According to the head coach, who also reserves the right to take a closer look when the match is cold, "there was a lack of connection between the members of the team, probably due to an emotional factor, and this led us to play a totally different match to the one we had planned. The proof lies in the fact that when the girls were able to move the ball quickly the chances came".

Fine goals by the two 'Victories', Ostuni Minuzzi and Vecchini, in the first half, as well as those of Francesca Sgorbini and Sara Seye in the second half, which in both cases had allowed the score to be tied. But the inertia of the match was rarely on the side of the captain Elisa Giordano and her teammates, because - it must be reiterated - the South Africans added technical and tactical skills to their weight and speed that they did not have before.

Uncontainable happiness for these mostly black players and their supporters. Tears and discouragement on the other side, as is logical. There will be reasoning and evaluations to be made, there will also be a non-radical but significant replacement, as happens at the end of a world cycle. The abnegation, seriousness and courage of these girls remain. And even if all this 'was not enough', as Giordano noted with all his bitterness (and with a black eye), the Italian rugby movement must still thank them.