Tight tussle: Italy v Australia
Australia put in a below par performance before claiming an unconvincing 22-19 victory over Italy in Florence on Saturday.
A superb second half fightback almost saw the home side pulling off a draw but a penalty from their fly-half Luciano Orquera, in the 79th minute, sailed just wide of the posts.
Italy came agonisingly close to taking the lead in the 67th minute when Orquera put through a perfectly-timed chip kick which bounced just in front of the Wallabies' try-line.
Captain Sergio Parisse was the player who gave chase but a wicked bounce denied him of what would have been a certain try.
It was a game of two halves for the Wallabies who dominated during the first 40 and held a deserved 22-6 lead at the break.
Their highlight of the game came in the 18th minute when Michael Hooper recovered a loose ball whichl went out to the backs and Kurtley Beale offloaded to Nick Cummins who got in for his second Test try in as many weeks.
Earlier Orquera and Berrick Barnes traded penalties but after Cummins' try, which Barnes converted, Australia added nine further points through a brace of penalties from Beale and another three-pointer from Barnes.
Orquera landed another place-kick on the half hour mark and when the players headed into the sheds, at the interval, Australia were well-set for a huge victory.
The Azzurri had other plans, however, and struck back with a try by Robert Barbieri shortly after the restart.
This came thanks to a dropped pass from Australia which resulted In Italy hoofing the ball downfield before Barbieri dived onto it behind the try-line.
After Australia's early dominance, the roles were completely reversed in the second half with Italy dominating in most facets.
They put the visitors under huge pressure in the set-pieces and were camped inside the Wallabies' 22 for long periods. To their credit the Wallabies' defence held firm and they kept several Italian surges towards their try-line at bay with courageous first-time tackles.
After converting his side's five-pointer, Orquera added two more penalties and although he had a chance to get the well deserved draw for the hosts it wasn't to be and the visitors held on to their narrow lead until the end.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Try: Barbieri
Con: Orquera
Pens: Orquera 4
Yellow card: Barbieri
For Australia:
Try: Cummins
Con: Barnes
Pens: Barnes 3, Beale 2
Yellow card: Ioane
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovambattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Francesco Minto, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Antonio Pavanello, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Manoa Vosawai, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Luke McLean.
Australia: 15 Berrick Barnes, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe (c), 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Mike Harris, 23 Digby Ioane
Referee: Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Comments
Lucasrg says...
Well done Italy! Great second half, finally! I feel that we even overplayd few bits of it while it was probably more intelligent to go for territory, but good spirit in carrying the ball at hand and alive. Zanni is world-class.
The ref was pretty unucky instead. really bad decisions cost a little of momentum from both sides.
I would have go for the line out but I guess a draw against the ozzies was pretty tempting. Fair enough.
Posted 00:41 27th November 2012
Trader2 says...
Pinky
Thats Read not Reid - he hates people spelling his name wrong.
Posted 22:21 25th November 2012
Ripzy007 says...
great balanced and insightful post Wallaroo, wish you would sit down with other mates and consider those facts rather than putting the blame on anything that moves on and off the rugby field LOL
Posted 18:58 25th November 2012
Wallaroo says...
Now that my emotions have settled. Breath in.
What has become of the Australian rugby brand?
Originally known for our attacking prowess, dangerous and formidable back-line play, great captaincies and salient teamwork which could turn even the tightest games into exciting affairs. Almost seems like this brand has now become our untenable goal, like reaching for galaxies way beyond those we know or can see; while the truth is it's right in front of our eyes but we're missing it because we're looking too far ahead.
IMHO I feel we expend far too much energy looking for whose to blame or how we lost it. Fact is we've lost our mojo and no amount of excuses or blame is going to get the Aussie mojo back.
So what will? Mindset and mindset alone. A mindset which no longer adopts unAustralian thinking; such as:
- not being prepared to lay your life on the line
- being risk adverse
- worried about what the world thinks of our scrum or any other facets of our play
- yielding to a media devoid of patriotism and understanding
- looking for excuses rather than reason/s
- importantly, being a team of independents and having a it's not my job mentality
Australia, time to take responsibility and reclaim our mindset of:
- risk equals reward (no mountain too high, valley too deep or gap too wide that cannot be conquered)
- behaving like a team of co-dependants not independents
- and finding reasons and ways to do things innovatively
We may have to suffer some defeat for a period but once it clicks we'll have regained our mojo and our brand which is the emblem we wear on our sleeve and carry in our hearts.
Posted 13:30 25th November 2012
pinky says...
Unfortunately another weak performance from the Wallabies and without the refs help in the first half, they would've lost that. Let's hope they raise their game again against the Welsh and can go home with a little bit of pride left. Hooper, Barnes, Sharpe and only a few others have played well so far this tour. For God's sake, lets go out and destroy the Welsh next Saturday and fly home on a high!!! I also think our front row also need to spend a week with Chopper Reid and Harden the F**k Up!!!!!
Posted 11:29 25th November 2012
giomamo says...
@Teuztv86 & Patagon: Thank you, guys. New coach Brunel is forcing players to develop hand-game, involving more and more the back-line: not easy for Italy cause they are used historically to base own game on front-line. So it's a matter of changing mindset. Moreover italian rugby system has still a lot of work to do, cause we haven't french or english deep of players, our clubs suffer a lot when they face other 6N clubs. The final goal is to enlarge the number of kids who play rugby in the school age. Not easy in a Country dominated by soccer.
Posted 11:27 25th November 2012
Fatflanker says...
Oz threw their patience game plan out the window in the 2nd half, pushing passes and totally disrespecting an Italian team that pushed NZ for much of last week. Crazy stuff. Italian scrum took the honours but Wallaby scrum looked a lot steadier in 2nd half, (one thing I don't understand why was the Italian front row not penalised for standing up?).
Oz will take a lot away from this series and will be stronger next year for it.
Posted 10:42 25th November 2012
Trinats2 says...
Get a life you drongos. whoopie do, I went to bed when Aus were up 22-3 against Italy. Maybe I should have stayed awake, and the Wallabies too, and it would have been 50+
Maybe Deans bored them at half time with a first ever pep talk or they had some "toxic" oranges !!!
ferdie:
I agree, rankings don't take into account the number of injures Australia have had this year. Full strength they could be No1 !!!
A win next week will see them back into 2nd.
Posted 10:38 25th November 2012
Trader2 says...
Hobbithunter
You mean like their Rugby team?
Trinats
Good to see you checked with your wife before commenting, I bet she loved your little effort on the DC story, Something to be proud of and you can tell your son all about it at the next barbie. You plonker.
Posted 09:34 25th November 2012
Speartackle says...
jonesy2 says...
"not the best performance but a pretty comfortable 10 point win"
CONFORTABLE?... 10 points?...
Someone has to take the wine away from this guy!
Posted 09:00 25th November 2012
nzmaoriboy says...
@hobbithunter-You Sound very original he he...It's kind of hilarious these brave lads who dish insults & talk tough on the keyboard,maybe the "no recrimination" clause serves you well. Some of us folk keep it positive and constructive mate..Love the Rugby is All..Will reiterate good win Oz against a quickly improving Italy..
Posted 08:31 25th November 2012
Teuztv86 says...
What can we say about Italy? Everybody wrote about wallabies in here. In my opinon, Italy played better than Australians, and deserved at least a draw. I think the Azzurri will appear in the top 7 of world ranking soon. What is your opinion guys? Their fast improvement in their way to play rugby far from the scrum, impressed me a The best Italy I see since the beginning of 6 Nations. Can they hope to get the 4rd placement in the final ranking of the next tournement?
Posted 05:26 25th November 2012
ferdie says...
the rankings, shows what a shambles world rugby may be in when the third ranked team has been outscored 291-245 this season, however a win with a margin of 47 or more v Wales would balance that.
France are 103+, SA 41+. That's positive!
Suggest 3rd be held as vacant, like Lance Armstrong's TdF non-titles.
Posted 04:42 25th November 2012
nzmaoriboy says...
Good win! Italy are just getting better and better...think people judge Italy on long past performances. They definitely have the ability to be the next ARGENTINA or Samoa as far as world rugby goes. The Wallabies were sloppy but at the end of the day they won & that's what counts. Food for thought 8 changes for the AB's between Italy & Wales! And some you guys are complaining about depth??..he he..Good luck next week
Posted 01:47 25th November 2012
Ramage says...
@OzinLondon you make some very good points. I was actually surprised van der Merwe was appointed to this game. If you have a look he did not receive many appointments in Super Rugby and I inderstand this was his first or second year in the Suoer rugby ranks. He really did show his inexperience and it seemed the event overwhelmed him. The worst South African International referee I have seen in ages and there are much better referees back in the Republic . The TMO was an Irishman one of the brigade that have produced those well known failures such as Clancy and Lewis and a new one in Lacey. How he missed that knock on is incredible but however one has to learn to accept these decisions as the men making them are human.
The Wallabies are an enigma and seem to go from one extreme to the other Deams must pull his hair out at times with some of the incedibily dumb play at times. You would have thought that a completely different team ran on to the field at the strat of the second half. This is by the way Italy have emerged under Brunnel as a team that is improving and bringing more to their game than scrummaging. it will be interesting to see how they do in the coming 6 Nations.
@Trinuts always thought you were a flyby night supporter but telling us you went to bed! When the Wallabies were playing! What kind of true supporter does that? Just shows that we cant rely on anything you say, even though we've known that for ages. Seems you arent a stayer and probably you lose concentration nod off to sleep and only wake up in time to make your illfounded posts to Planet rugby, based on what you believe to have happened rather than what did. Gold! You have been rumbled.
Posted 01:28 25th November 2012
Patagon says...
Bravo Italy! So good to see you playing good rugby. Italy show great display of handling skills, composure, passion and pride of course, plenty. Will look forward to seeing you playing again and to beat some 6N teams too. Congratulations!
Posted 00:57 25th November 2012
isthatrightref says...
@ masterbaiter... were you having a sleep-over at Nana & Poppy's house that you were allowed to stay up so late? You should've curled up on the couch for a while with the latest offering from Quade's book club (see Spot run, Spot is chasing the ball etc) & had a wee nap...
Let me guess: the solid win v Ringinland & the OK-but-nothing-startling 1st half of this game are down to the players; the shellacking from France & the very ordinary 2nd half last night is 100% down to one Robert Maxwell Deans?
Posted 00:55 25th November 2012
Hobbithunter says...
The Aussie haters you refer to Trinats2 probably live in Australia and they are called New Zealanders. Small people, from a small place, small in stature.
Posted 00:41 25th November 2012
Trinats2 says...
22-3 up I went to bed, looks like the Wallabies did too. Well done Italy you at least deserved the draw.
There are some gutted (and dead set drop kicks) people on here, not the Wallabies supporters for that performance, but the Aussie haters, one that got away bro's !!! We are still ranked 3rd (would be second only for a very very lucky try by the Saffas over Eng) with this make shift side.
Does Deans know he can use his bench at ANY time, (wes he even there ?? he may have gone shopping) and not just in the last 15 mins ?
Ref was poor, but for both sides.
Posted 22:03 24th November 2012
Startledwombat says...
The wallabies' ability to be three or so points better than the opposition on the day. No matter who the opposition are.
Posted 21:19 24th November 2012