Argentina XV topple Emerging Italy in Nations Cup

The Felipe Contepomi-coached Argentina XV made it back-to-back victories in the Nations Cup, downing Emerging Italy 40-30 in Bucharest, Romania earlier today. A strong opening half from the South Americans saw inside center Joaquín Paz crossing for two tries. With Segundo Tuculet and Joaquín Díaz Bonilla both also scoring and Díaz Bonilla’s boot on target the Argentina XV held a 32-8 half time lead.

A greatly improved Emerging Italy made for a vastly different second half. Tries to Andrea Menniti-Ippolito, Adriano Daniele, and Gabriele Di Giulio saw the Italians fight back to a 32-20 scoreline.

Upon finding their feet the Argentina XV did enough to seal a victory. A try to replacement hooker Santiago Iglesias Valdez was sufficient to see Argentina’s ‘A’ side coming out on top.

In the third and final round of the Nations Cup the Argentina XV will take on Romania on Saturday. Emerging Italy will finish up by facing Namibia.

ARGENTINA XV 40
Tries – J. Paz 2, S. Tuculet, J. Díaz Bonilla, S. Iglesias Valdez
Cons – J. Díaz Bonilla 4, P. Mercerat

EMERGING ITALY 30
Tries – R. Giammarioli, A. Menniti-Ippolito, A. Daniele, G. Di Giulio
Cons – M. Azzolini 3

ARGENTINA XV
1 Carlos Muzzio, 2 Axel Zapata, 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Sacha Casañas, 5 Pedro Ortega, 6 José Deheza, 7 Lucas Maguire, 8 Lautaro Bavaro, 9 Felipe Ezcurra (capt.), 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Segundo Tuculet, 12 Joaquín Paz, 13 Bruno Devoto, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Gonzalo Gutiérrez Taboada

Replacements: 16 Santiago Iglesias Valdez, 17 Lucas Martínez, 18 Franco Brarda, 19 Santiago Montagner, 20 Santiago Portillo, 21 Marcos Bollini, 22 Gabriel Ascárate, 23 Pedro Mercerat

EMERGING ITALY
1 Federico Zani, 2 Adriano Daniele, 3 Roberto Tenga, 4 Sebastian Negri, 5 Riccardo Michieletto, 6 Luca Nostran, 7 Federico Conforti (capt.), 8 Renato Giammarioli, 9 Giorgio Bronzini, 10 Maicol Azzolini, 11 Andrea Bettin, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 13 Francesco Menon, 14 Gabriele Di Giulio, 15 Andrea Menniti-Ippolito

Replacements: 16 Luhandre Luus, 17 Paolo Buonfiglio, 18 Giuseppe Di Stefano, 19 Filippo Gerosa, 20 Matteo Corazzi, 21 Simone Marinaro, 22 Paolo Pescetto, 23 Roberto Quartaroli