By Nick Powell, Online Editor at Stade de Nice
Italy…………………………….38
Tries: Pani 7, Lamaro 46, Ioane 52, Cannone 56, Brex 61
Conversions: Allan 8, 47, 53, 57, 62
Penalties: Garbisi 70
Uruguay…………………….17
Tries: Penalty 27, Freitas 37
Conversions: Etcheverry 38
Drop goals: Etcheverry 40+2
Italy kept their hopes of progression to the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals very much alive as they fought back from ten points down to record an ultimately comfortable win against Uruguay.
It means the Azzurri have ten points from two games so far in the tournament, and head into their games against the Pool A giants France and New Zealand with a place in the 2027 World Cup assured – by virtue of all-but securing at least third in the group – and two opportunities to shock the rugby world and grab a place in the knockout stages.
It was not all plain sailing for Italy, perhaps the epitome of the cliché a game of two halves, as they trailed 17-7 at the break before roaring back with 31 unanswered points in the second period, but it was a 40-minute salvo they can reflect on very positively, showing their quality and spirit that will be needed in spades to come through their group.
For their opponents Uruguay it may be considered another opportunity missed against tier one opposition, but they continue to show how well they can compete against the best and will hope to beat bottom side Namibia and give themselves a boost of confidence in qualifying for the next campaign.
Los Teros’s fly-half Felipe Etcheverry wildly hooked a kick following Uruguay’s opening score against France last Thursday, and though he was only marginally off target in the early stages of this encounter, his second-minute penalty miss was undoubtedly an opportunity lost.
That miss was compounded when it was Italy’s turn to attack, and superstar Ange Capuozzo put a perfectly weighted grubber in before he, and the also diminutive Paolo Garbisi, shoved Uruguayan full-back Baltazar Amaya back over his own line.
Like England on Sunday in the same stadium and at approximately the same minute of the game, Italy fluffed their first chance from the five metre scrum, but unlike the men in white the Azzurri opted to go again, and were rewarded as Lorenzo Pani wrestled his way over in the seventh minute.
Tommy Allan converted, and his side were faced with a series of Uruguayan responses as they tried to attack from deep, with Los Teros’s brilliant work over the ball from the France game continuing into the fixture against their neighbouring opposition.
After Manuel Ardao got over the ball for the third time in the first twenty minutes to set up another chance for Etcheverry off the tee he again missed, but his redemption would not be far away.
With Italy continuing to show ambition from deep inside their own half, the fly-half plucked an interception on the edge of the 22 from a loopy Juan Ignacio Brex pass in the wide channels to set up Los Teros pressure close to the line.
The resulting goalline attack saw both Niccolo Cannone and Danilo Fischetti yellow carded for Italy, with the second offence of collapsing a maul compounded with a Uruguayan penalty try.
Uruguay, desperate to cash in on ten minutes of a two-man advantage, were playing with a huge dose of their own ambition now and whilst it wasn’t always paying off, they were bossing the game and looked the far more likely to score.
After Allan went far too high in a tackle, Uruguay had another maul opportunity less than ten metres out. They had to work incredibly hard to open Italy up, but finally created enough space against their 13-man opposition to feed Nicolas Freitas, who produced his second fine finish of what is turning into a special tournament for the winger.
Etcheverry’s superb conversion that followed showed how much things were swinging, and though Italy returned to a full compliment and were cheered on by their fans as the clock went into the red, it was Uruguay who had the final attack of the half.
The fly-half’s redemption was complete in the final scene of an extraordinary first act, as he seemed to fluff a rushed drop goal attempt but the ball somehow skimmed its way over the bar, with the three points confirmed after a TMO check.
Italy needed a flying start to the second period; not only would they want to win, but add to their measly seven point and one try tally up to that stage, with a four-try bonus point a crucial route to putting pressure on France and New Zealand in their ultimate goal to progress.
Having had less than 40 per cent in both possession and territory in the first half, they began rectifying the problem as they went though the phases just inside the Uruguayan half.
And whilst it came in a roundabout way, their patience was rewarded as Teros captain Andres Vilaseca was sent to the bin for a head-on-head tackle, and Italy sent the ball into the corner.
While Uruguay had the boost of resisting the initial Italian maul, which was held up, and the news that their own skipper would not have his card converted into a red, it was Italy’s skipper that inflicted the first damage to their ten-point lead as Michele Lamaro produced a powerful and clinical finish from 10 yards out to cut the gap to three with Allan’s conversion.
Italy had now found their mettle, Uruguay had lost theirs and their captain remained off the field of play, and after Etcheverry was charged down and Italy set up another close range chance, they went through the phases before Monty Ioane found his way to his side’s third.
The bonus point they were chasing was in the bag just a few minutes later, with Pani breaking from deep and Lorenzo Cannone getting their fourth score after more good phase play, and Uruguay had seemingly watched their hopes evaporate having been two scores in front just ten minutes prior.
The increasingly irresistible Italians came back yet again, this time with Capuozzo providing a kick through for Ioane, who did brilliantly to drag his opposite winger into touch and set up a lineout eight metres out.
Though the Italians didn’t crash over from the drive, Brex made sure to join the scoring as he cut a clever line in the midfield to finish from a couple of yards.
Uruguay’s dsperation was now clear to see: overly ambitious offloads, an effective “dive” from scrum-half Santiago Arata and the forever up-and-down Etcheverry keeping the ball in play when it would have gone back for a scrum in the Italian half after a loose touch finder from Garbisi.
But at least Los Teros finally had a foothold, and though Garbisi got some kicking practice in with a late penalty, that would be the last of Italy’s damage in what had nonetheless been another brave performance for the Uruguayans.
ITALY: Capuozzo, Pani, Brex, Garbisi, Ioane, Allan, Garbisi; Fischetti, Nicotera, Riccioni, N Cannone, Ruzza, Negri, Lamaro (c), L Cannone
Replacements: Bigi, Zani, Ceccarelli, Lamb, Zuliani, Pettinelli, Fusco, Odogwu
URUGUAY: Amaya, Mieres, Inciarte, Vilaseca (c), Freitas, Etcheverry, Arata; Sanguinetti, Kessler, Peculo, Aliaga, Leindekar; Ardao, Civetta, Diana
Replacements: Pujadas, Gattas, Arbelo, Dotti, Deus, Ormaechea, Berchesi, Basso
Referee: Ben O’Keefe
Attendance: 28,627
Star Man: Michele Lamaro, Italy
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