Azzurri suffer injury blow for Bok duels

Italy’s hopes of troubling the world champion Springboks in July have taken a major knock with the latest news on star back Ange Capuozzo.

The electric fullback, who has been central to Italy’s counter-attack, is sidelined with a broken leg and unlikely to feature in the two-Test tour to the Republic.

The Boks kick off the 2025 Test season against the Azzurri at Loftus Versfeld on 5 July – Italy’s first visit to South Africa since 2013 – before the teams meet again one week later at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, where they last crossed paths in 2001.

Capuozzo on Tuesday was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a broken left fibula, dealing another serious blow to Toulouse’s hopes of retaining their Top 14 title.

The 26-year-old had to be helped off the pitch in the second-half of table-topping Toulouse’s surprise defeat by relegation-threatened Perpignan in their final regular season match last week.

Subsequent medical examinations confirmed that Capuozzo, who has scored 14 tries this term, will be out for several months.

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Toulouse have already lost the services of captain Antoine Dupont and France hooker Peato Mauvaka, both of whose campaigns were ended by ruptured knee ligaments.

Fortunately for Toulouse, Scottish international Blair Kinghorn is ready to return to action after recovering from a knee injury and is a ready-made replacement for Capuozzo.

Toulouse have just under two weeks to prepare for their Top 14 semi-final in Lyon – they will face either Bayonne or Clermont who meet in the play-offs on Friday.

They are favourites along with Bordeaux-Begles, who finished second in the table some 12 points adrift of them, to reach the final.

Should the two sides clash Toulouse will hope to deny Bordeaux emulating their double of last season.

Bordeaux ended Toulouse’s hopes of retaining the Investec Champions Cup trophy in the semi-finals before going on last month to edge Northampton and win the title for the first time.

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