Parisse Leads Italy to Historic Win over South Africa

Sergio Parisse has made history. The Argentine born Italian captain led his team to an historic win over South Africa today. The No 8 added to his scalps of France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales with another – the Springboks.

The 20-18 win will send shockwaves throughout Tier 1. It changes the shape of the Rugby World Cup seeding. South Africa is now very much outside of Band A. As such the prosepcets of a Pool of Death are not only real but there may, in fact, now be two of them.

The result places further pressure on Los Pumas. Argentina must defeat Scotland today or fall outside of Band B. This would mean they would almost certainly have a vastly difficult draw for Japan 2019.

Heading into this weekend Band C consisted of Georgia, Italy, Japan and Scotland. Italy’s win today combined with next weekend’s test and the 2017 Six Nations may yet see Italy into Band B.

SCORERS
ITALY
Tries: Van Schalkwyk, Venditti,
Cons: Canna, Padovani
Pens: Padovani, Canna

SOUTH AFRICA
Try: Habana, de Allende
Conversion: Lambie
Penalty: Lambie, Jantjies

ITALY
15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Giulio Bisegni, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Luke McLean, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Giorgio Bronzini, 8 Sergio Parisse (capt.), 7 Simone Favaro, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Andries van Schalkwyk, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Ornel Gega, 1 Sami Panico

Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 George Fabio Biagi, 20 Abraham Steyn, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Tommaso Boni

South Africa
5 Willie le Roux, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Teboho Mohojt, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Johan Goosen