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Cape Town - 20 stats and facts ahead of Saturday's Italy v Springboks clash at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence.
Team and milestones:
• With the concussion suffered by Eben Etzebeth in the Test against England he was unavailable for selection, thus bringing his long run of 31 consecutive Test matches to an end.
• The total Test caps in the starting line-up is 509, of which 250 are in the backline and 259 among the forwards. The combined Test caps of those on the bench is 86. The average caps per player for the 23 is 26.
• The youngest player in the 23 man squad is Lood de Jager (23y, 10m) while the oldest member of the team is Bryan Habana (33y, 5m).
• The tallest player in the squad is Lood de Jager (2.05m), the shortest is Faf de Klerk (1.72m), the heaviest is Steven Kitshoff (125kg) and the lightest is Faf de Klerk (80kg).
• Adriaan Strauss and Tendai Mtawarira will play in their 10th consecutive match in the starting XV under Allister Coetzee’s reign.
• Of the 23 players Bryan Habana is the most capped against Italy with six Tests.
• Should South Africa be victorious in this Test match it will be the 13th consecutive Test win against Italy.
• Any score against Italy will surpass 600 points in Tests against Italy in 13 Tests.
• Three tries by South Africa in this Test match will bring up the 1 300th try in Springbok Test rugby.
• Bryan Habana will become the most capped Springbok against Italy in this Test with his seventh appearance. He also needs one try against Italy to become joint Springbok record holder with Stefan Terblanche for most career tries against Italy (six).
• Tendai Mtawarira will play in his 90th match in the Springbok jersey. This Test match will be his 86th while he played in four tour games in his career.
Head to head:
• Italy and South Africa will meet for the 13th time since their first Test in 1995. South Africa won all previous 12 Tests.
• The smallest losing margin for Italy against the Springboks is 16, when they lost 29-13 in Witbank in 2010 and 22-6 in Padova in 2014.
• In 1999 South Africa won the Test against Italy in Durban 101-0, the second highest winning margin in the history of South African Test rugby.
• South Africa’s complete record against Italy is: P: 12; W: 12; PF: 599; PA: 145; TF: 82; TA: 12; Percentage won: 100%; Average score: 50-12.
Match officials:
• The match officials for this match are: Referee – George Clancy (Ireland); Assistant referees – Nigel Owens (Wales) and David Wilkinson (Ireland) with the TMO Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland).
• It will be Clancy’s 10th appearance as referee in Test matches involving South Africa. The Springboks won six of the previous nine with Clancy in charge.
The stadium:
• Stadio Artemio Franchi is a football stadium in Florence, Italy and is home to ACF Fiorentina. The club plays in the Serie A League.
• The stadium has a seating capacity of 47 282.
• The Springboks have never played at the stadium. Australia are the only Tier 1 country that has played against Italy at this stadium before - in 2010 and 2012. Australia won both Test matches.
