South Africa thump Italy to stay perfect in Nations Championship

South Africa strolled past an injury-hit Italy with a 66-7 win in Saturday's Nations Championship meeting in Turin.

Flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored the first of nine Springbok tries and added another 21 points from a perfect kicking display.

South Africa ran in six tries in an utterly dominant opening half. Hooker Malcolm Marx went over twice, adding to scores by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg and captain Siya Kolisi and Damian Willemse, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicking all six conversions having opened the scoring with a penalty.

Wilco Louw added another try after the break before Italy finally got off the mark with Federico Ruzza's try converted by Tommaso Allan. Springbok wing Ethan Hooker ran in the final score on the stroke of full-time.

South Africa had claimed maximum points from their three July fixtures to top the Southern Hemisphere group ahead of New Zealand on points difference and they added to that total against Italy ahead of the All Blacks facing Scotland at Murrayfield later on Saturday.