mens
nations-championship
Italy’s answer to last week’s 66-7 result Nations Championship humbling by South Africa ultimately came up short as Gonzalo Quesada’s team fell 19-14 Argentina in Genoa, but there was enough fight to suggest the Azzurri are moving back vaguely in the right direction.
The home side made an early run and scored inside four minutes when Leonardo Marin produced a wonderful flick for Monty Ioane to score in the corner. Tommaso Allan added an excellent touchline conversion and Italy looked comfortably the better side despite Argentina enjoying plenty of possession.
Much of this is due to the outstanding Manuel Zuliani. The winger was all over the place during the opening exchanges, repeatedly saving Italy with breakdown steals deep inside his own 22. One turnover became two, then three, as Zuliani turned into an absolute menace for the Pumas.
The Italian conflict was also causing serious problems. Danilo Fischetti and Simone Ferrari got the better of Boris Wenger and Francisco Moreno, while Federico Ruzza squeezed the ball on the line and Niccolò Cannone made a powerful run through the middle.
Yet for all their territorial dominance, Italy only had seven points to show for it. Marin impressed with ball in hand and through the ball, Paolo Odogwu made a few meaty tackles, but chances were repeatedly missed.
Argentina finally made Italy pay just before the break. Guido Petti disrupted the Italian line-up, Pedro Rubiolo and Pablo Matera got the visitors into the contest and a catch-and-drive tied the score at 7-7 at halftime.
The second half mostly belonged to the Pumas. Tomás Albornoz started to pull the strings, Mateo Carreras and Rodrigo Isgró found space and Argentina’s six away games in Italy’s 22 games produced enough points to build a 19-7 lead.
To Italy’s credit, they refused to give up. Constant pressure eventually led to a penalty attempt in the 65th minute, and Cannone was unlucky not to get the score himself.
A late fightback from the home side followed, but Paolo Garbisi’s touchfinder missed in the final game with the game hanging in the balance.
Italy: Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Ross Vintcent, 5 Federico Ruzza, Cane Nicco, 2 Cane Nicco, 4 Giacomo Nicotera (c), 1 Danilo Fischetti, 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Muhamed Hasa, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, 20 Alessandro Ortombina, 21 Samuele Locatelli, 22 Alessandro23 Garbideri Morideri,
Argentina: 15 Bautista Delguy, 14 Rodrigo Isgro, 13 Justo Piccardo, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 9 Simon Benítez Cruz, 8 Juan Martín Scelzo, 7 Joaquín Petro Gubio, 6 Pati Pedro Gubio, 6 3 Francisco Moreno, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 1 Boris Wenger, 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Thomas Gallo, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Juan Martín González, 21 Gonzalo García, 22 Santiago Cruzónr, J.23.