Argentina make it nine in a row

By Ben Jaycock

Italy ……………….. 18pts

Tries: Penalty 33, Nicotera 69

Penalties: Allan 43, 44

Argentina ……… 50pts

Tries: Mallia 11, Bertranou 29, Sclavi 49, Albornoz 57, Cordero 66, Alemanno 73, Delguy 78

Conversions: Albornoz 12, 30, 50, 58, 74, 79 Penalty: Albornoz 4

Argentina continued their fine form from the Rugby Championship to make it nine wins in a row against the Azzurri with their all-time biggest winning margin.

Match Action

Juan Cruz Mallia produced a captivating sidestep to leave former Harlequin Louis Lynagh in his dust and open the scoring.

Italy dominated early possession and territory and produced some fine backplay but had nothing to show for their visits to the 22 due to sloppy handling in the red zone.

The Pumas’ snatch and grab mentality was showcased by an incredible take by Harlequins new signing Rodrigo Isgro which was followed by a series of favourable bounces that allowed scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou to score in the corner. Tomos Albornoz kicked the extras to make it 17-0 at the half hour mark.

Italy got on the board with a penalty try that saw Saracens flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez sin binned for bringing down a maul.

Tommaso Allan slotted back-to-back penalties in the early stages of the second half but Argentina got a third try with prop Joel Sclavi going over off a driving maul.

The visitors increased their advantage to 18 points with Albornoz’s runaway score and the contest was over when substitute Santiago Cordero skittled through.

Italy hit back with Giacomo Nicotera’s touchdown but Gloucester lock Matias Alemanno took advantage of feeble defence to power his way over.

Lorenzo Cannone was yellow-carded in the dying stages for a high tackle before Bautista Delguy scored the final try after fine work from Gonzalez.

Argentina face Ireland on Friday while next up for Italy is Richard Cockerill’s Georgia on Sunday.