Argentina regain momentum with big win over Italy

Argentina regained momentum today. The South Americans were big winners over Italy at the Stadio Monigo in Treviso. The 37-16 win was the first since July and put to an end what was a seven match losing-streak.

The five tries to one victory was Argentina’s largest over Italy since 2002. It is placed third on the list behind the 36-6 win in 2002 and the 38-17 win in 2001. In addition, the match was the second largest win during the Mario Ledesma tenure. The largest was 47-17 win against the USA at RWC 2019.

The match started well for Ledesma’s Pumas. The first try came in the opening ten minutes. Santiago Carreras returned an Italian kick with an up-and-under. The aerial kick was chased and gathered by Emiliano Boffelli. The Rosario-Córdoba combination then saw Concordia linked in as Marcos Kremer got the pass from Boffelli and ran 22 meters to score.

The try was Kremer’s second in his test career. His first was also against Italy and was also in a winning effort. Boffelli made it 10-0 with a 15th minute penalty. It was responded to by Italian fly half Paolo Garbisi. He scored two first half penalties for the home side.

Before Garbisi could open Italy’s account, Argentina were up to 16 points. Mendoza’s Juan Martín González finished off a soccer move wherein center Jerónimo de la Fuente kicked through and he chased to add his own touch of the boot before gathering and scoring.

The second half started even better than the first had for Argentina. The South Americans had their third try of the contest within two minutes of the restart. It demonstrated that work had identified problems in the Italian defense. Santiago Carreras put the ball into space for a chase an acrobatic take from Mateo Carreras. Quick recycling then enabled Pablo Matera to attract defenders and put Matías Moroni away for a try.

Next to score was Stephen Varney. The Italian no 9 went into the try zone in the 50th minute. His score was the Azzurri’s one try of the match. It was converted by Garbisi who subsequently landed a penalty to make it a 24-16 scoreline after 50 minutes. The remaining points in the match were all scored by Argentina.

Solid mid-field carries from Jerónimo de la Fuente, Marcos Kremer and Thomas Gallo made space for Argentina’s fourth try. Speedster Santiago Cordero needed no invitation to put on the afterburners and carve his way into the try zone.

The final try was that of a hooker’s craft. Replacement Facundo Bosch scored his first test match try. He threw a lineout and latched on to the back of the subsequent rolling-maul. Italy looked to fore the maul into touch but Bosch was un to the challenge and he controlled the ball and the back and detached to score.

The match was game two for both Argentina and Italy this month. The November Internationals will conclude for both countries next weekend. Argentina travel to Dublin to face Ireland while Italy make the drive west to face Uruguay in Parma.

 

SCORING

ITALY 16
Tries – S. Varney (47′)
Cons – P. Garbisi 1/1 (48′)
Pens – P. Garbisi 3/3 (31′, 40′, 51′)

ARGENTINA 37
Tries – M. Kremer (8′), J. González (27′), M. Moroni (42′), S. Cordero (54′), F. Bosch (75′)
Cons – E. Boffelli 3/4 (9′, 28′, 43′), N. Sánchez 0/1
Pens – E. Boffelli 1/2 (14′), N. Sánchez 1/1 (63′)

 

TEAMS

ITALY
1 Ivan Nemer (17 Danilo Fischetti 48′), 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi (16 Luca Bigi 64′), 3 Marco Riccioni (18 Pietro Ceccarelli 51′), 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 David Sisi (19 Marco Fuser 48′), 6 Sebastian Negri (21 Giovanni Pettinelli 56′), 7 Michele Lamaro (capt.), 8 Giovanni Licata (20 Federico Ruzza 48′), 9 Stephen Varney (22 Alessandro Fusco 66′), 10 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 12 Luca Morisi, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 15 Matteo Minozzi (23 Federico Mori 56′)

ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo (17 Ignacio Calles 60′), 2 Julián Montoya (capt.) (16 Facundo Bosch 66′), 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela (18 Santiago Medrano 56′), 4 Marcos Kremer, 5 Tomás Lavanini (19 Lucas Paulos 66′), 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Juan Martín González, 8 Facundo Isa (20 Santiago Grondona 53′), 9 Tomás Cubelli (21 Gonzalo Bertranou 66′), 10 Santiago Carreras (22 Nicolás Sánchez 60′), 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (23 Lucio Cinti 66′), 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15 Emiliano Boffelli

 

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistants:  Ben Blain (Scotland) & Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)