Italy rebound after glorious Uruguayan opening half at World Cup

31 unanswered second-half points meant Italy finished off convincing winners over Uruguay in Nice on Wednesday. Uruguay were 17-7 up at half-time and looking like being on way to a Rugby World Cup upset.

As was the case in their opening match against France, Los Teros took the game to their Tier 1 opponents. Uruguay’s half-time lead came despite having missed two early penalties and conceding a try.

Italy won two scrum penalties to position themselves five meters out from the Uruguayan try zone. A series of waves culminated with Lorenzo Pani scratching the ball on the ground in the try zone. Tommaso Allan converted for a 7-0 lead. The try stood but the grounding was not convincing.

Uruguay were down by 7 after eight minutes of play. They recovered to play the better rugby for the remainder of the half. Nicolás Freitas backed-up his try again France by scoring again. The outside back linked with Santiago Arata to score in the left corner.

A brilliant conversion from Etcheverry followed. The fly half swung the ball the wrong way from left to right to land a sideline conversion. Uruguay were now back to even at 7-7 early in the second-quarter.

A second try followed. This time it came with Italy well and truly under pressure. Two Italian forwards were yellow carded two minutes apart. The second happened together with a penalty try. Manuel Ardao was over for a score which the TMO checked to to find Danilo Fischetti infringing.

Even though his try did not stand, Ardao led the way for Los Teros. The Miami Sharks bound flanker completed four jackal turnovers in opening half. Santiago Arata, Manuel Leindekar and Bautista Basso also also won turnovers for Uruguay.

With time up in the opening half Uruguay scored three further points. Felipe Etcheverry made up for his missed penalties by landing a drop-goal from 40 meters out. The score took Uruguay ten points ahead of Italy.

Trailing 17-7 at half-time the pressure was on Italy to rebound. The European team did so as they kept Los Teros scoreless in the second-half while scoring four tries of their own.

Uruguayan captain Andrés Vilaseca was yellow carded early on in the second-half. Referee Angus Gardner determined that Vilaseca had made head contact in a tackle. The images indicated that the decision had been very severe. It was a turning point as Italy’s scored twice with Vilaseca off.

Captain Michele Lamaro burst over for the first with Australian Montana Ioane scoring six minutes later. Lamaro’s try was erroneous as he dropped the ball. It meant that Uruguay’s lead had been taken-away with Italy now on top and in command. N8 Lorenzo Cannone gave Italy the bonus point next before Argentine Juan Ignacio Brex crossed for the fifth.

Uruguay’s heads were down; they had been in a position to press for a win but were overpowered by the higher ranked team. A late penalty from Paolo Garbisi marked the end of scoring in the match.

Having claimed bonus point wins over Namibia and Uruguay, Italy are top of Pool A at the World Cup. This will not last long, however, as France face Namibia on Thursday. Italy is yetto face both New Zealand and France.

Uruguay’s remaining matches are against Namibia and New Zealand. Both will take-place in Lyon. A win over the African side is now the Uruguayan mission for the remainder of the World Cup.

 

SCORING

ITALY (38)
Try – L Pani (7′); M Lamaro (46′); M Ioane (52′); L Cannone (56′); JI Brex (61′)
Con – T Allan (8′, 47′, 53′, 57′, 62′)
Pen – P Garbisi (70′)
YC – N Cannone (25′); D Fischetti  (27′)

URUGUAY (17)
Try – N Freitas (17′); Penalty Try (27′)
Con – F Etcheverry (28′)
DG – F Etcheverry (40′)
YC – A Vilaseca (43′)

TEAMS

ITALY
1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Sebastián Negri, 7 Michele Lamaro (capt.), 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 10 Tommaso Allan, 11 Montana Ioane, 12 Paolo Garbisi, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 14 Lorenzo Pani, 15 Ange Capuozzo

Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Giovanni Pettinelli, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Paolo Odogwu

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Ignacio Péculo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Baltazar Amaya

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Diego Arbelo, 19 Ignacio Dotti, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Agustín Ormaechea, 22 Felipe Berchesi, 23 Bautista Basso

 

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Jordan Way (Australia); Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Tom Foley (England)