South Africa's resilience shines as red card absorbed in win over Italy in Turin

TURIN, Italy (AP) — South Africa absorbed a red card for a second straight test and prevailed again in beating Italy 32-14 at the Juventus Stadium on Saturday.

The Springboks played a man short for almost 70 minutes after lock Franco Mostert was sent off, but showed the adaptability and resilience that helped them beat France in Paris with 14 men a week ago.

The Boks bench was reliably impactful as they led Italy by only six points with eight minutes to go, and secured the win with a try by replacement Grant Williams from a counterattack inside their own half.

They capped a stylish finish moments later when Ethan Hooker, a midfielder moved to the wing, scored his first test try from a kick-pass by replacement Manie Libbok.

Springboks captain Siya Kolisi said they always plan for red cards but "it doesn't make it easy for us. We can talk about sacrifices but seeing a guy like Franco sitting there (on the sideline), we could see the hurt in his eyes.

“That said, I really love the way this team is just able to stand up and fight. We always say whatever happens between those four lines we can still go as hard as we can and control what we can.”

Italy flyhalf Paolo Garbisi received the red-card foul but crucially missed three of his six goal kicks, just a week after he was 100% off the tee in a win over Australia.

South Africa made 11 changes after the France win and fielded an experimental side, but the plans evaporated in the 12th minute when Mostert was issued a permanent red card for his no-arms, shoulder-led high tackle on Garbisi.

“The red card for Mostert was probably excessive,” Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada said. “When they got the red card I was frustrated; I imagined South Africa's reaction and that even greater discipline would be needed on our part. But the key was not putting points on the scoreboard when we should have in order to try to win the match.”

For the second straight test, a Springbok lock was sent off. Lood de Jager was marched for a similar tackle against France just before halftime and South Africa prevailed by playing tighter and squeezing the French.

They did the same to Italy.

Coach Rassie Erasmus gradually pulled off test novices Ben-Jason Dixon, Zachary Porthen, Boan Venter and Edwill van der Merwe, replacing them with experienced bomb squaders Ruan Nortje, Wilco Louw, Gerhard Steenekamp and hybrid forward/back Andre Esterhuizen.

Ten phases led to a penalty by Handre Pollard in his first test in two months. His value was highlighted by counterpart Garbisi, who missed his first two penalties but was third time lucky to level the score.

Right on halftime, South Africa tapped a penalty, No. 8 Marco van Staden crashed over and Pollard's extras gave them a 10-3 lead into the break.

Two more Garbisi penalties lifted Italy to within one with a two-man advantage after Van Staden was sin-binned.

But the advantage was brief. Italy No. 8 Lorenzo Cannone was sin-binned and Pollard's third goalkick made it 13-9.

On the hour, the Springboks gambled again. They waived a penalty kick in front of the posts for a scrum, tighthead Louw twisted it, and scrumhalf Morne van den Berg darted over.

Italy renewed hope five minutes later when Ange Capuozzo scored off a Garbisi inside ball but Garbisi missed the conversion to groans from the home crowd.

The Springboks didn't waste their chances and finished with superb tries by Williams and Hooker. Libbok ruined South Africa's perfect goalkicking record when he timed out on the last conversion.

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

South Africa's Morne Van Den Berg, right, scores a try during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italy's Juan Ignacio Brex reacts during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

South Africa's Grant Williams, center, reacts after scoring a try during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

South Africa's Ethan Hooker, second left, celebrates after scoring a try during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

South Africa's Johan Grobbelaar in action during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

South Africa's Damian Willemse passes as Italy's Louis Lynagh makes a tackle during the rugby union Nations Series match between Italy and South Africa, in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

WESTMINSTER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 1, 2026--

Vantor, the leading provider of unified spatial intelligence from space to ground, has been awarded its third National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Luno contract to provide NGA and other U.S. Government agencies automated, near real-time orbital intelligence of high-interest objects in space.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260401774885/en/

Under the $2.3 million contract, Vantor will utilize its high-resolution imagery of space objects, also known as non-Earth Imagery (NEI), to deliver intelligence on priority objects in low Earth orbit, including providing alerts when anomalies are present. The analysis will be largely automated, marking a significant step forward in eliminating manual processing and accelerating timely and actionable insights for Space Domain Awareness.

“In a contested domain like space, awareness is everything,” said Susanne Hake, Executive Vice President & General Manager, U.S. Government at Vantor. “Still, it’s the one domain where exquisite visual intelligence is extremely hard to come by, creating literal and figurative blind spots. Our NEI capabilities are one of the few technologies that can provide high-resolution visual intelligence of objects in space, providing intelligence analysts and decisionmakers with a deeper understanding of the behavior and intent of high-interest space objects—a decisive edge in an increasingly complex environment.”

Vantor’s orbital intelligence capabilities can provide insights into a space object’s features, health, velocity, and movements, including whether an object is changing orbit—a situation that could endanger the safety of U.S. assets in space. Vantor satellites can capture images of other spacecraft at an industry-leading resolution of less than 10 cm from hundreds of kilometers away, making it possible to quickly characterize those space objects and determine their health and status.

This award marks the third win for Vantor under NGA’s Luno program. Vantor previously announced a Luno contract to automatically detect land use land cover change at global scale, enabling NGA to anticipate where maps and their features may require updates. And in June, Vantor was awarded a Luno contract to deliver AI/ML-generated object detection services to identify assets across air, maritime, land, and rail domains; determine counts at specified locations; detect trends and anomalies; and perform advanced spatial and temporal geospatial intelligence analysis.

“These awards reflect the core of Vantor’s mission—to deliver real-time intelligence faster than the speed of threat, from space to ground,” said Hake. “By integrating our persistent monitoring, change detection, and space-domain awareness capabilities, we’re empowering our partners to understand and act on threats across every domain, before they emerge.”

The Luno program—made up of Luno A and Luno B—is part of NGA’s ongoing efforts to execute an agile acquisition strategy that unlocks the capacity and innovation of the commercial geospatial industry.

About Vantor

Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence to unlock a more autonomous, interoperable world. We give decision makers and operators the power to build a unified intelligence picture, delivering the clarity they need to navigate what’s happening now and shape what’s coming next. We fuse data from the world’s most capable imaging satellites with real-time sensor feeds from space, air, and ground to create an AI-ready digital twin of Earth. Our spatial intelligence platform automates every part of the cycle—from tasking to collection to production—to update and analyze this foundation at the pace of change. Our products drive deeper mission-critical insights and connect the next generation of autonomous systems across the defense, intelligence, and commercial landscape.

Vantor non-Earth image of a Chinese imaging satellite, collected under the NGA Luno B contract. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite features a large deployable antenna that enables high-resolution radar imaging from orbit.