Argentina ran out comfortable winners by beating an ill-disciplined Italian outfit 24-6 at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza, keeping their unbeaten home record this season intact.
The Azzurri front row didn't have enough to compete with the ever-impressive Pumas scrum, thus denying the visitors' backline little ball to play with.
Argentina, however, made sure the obscene amount of possesion was converted into points as they outscored their opposition by two tries to nill.
In what was expected to be a dire encounter between two teams missing a number of their star players, turned out to be a robust Test that kept the packed stadium in raptures for the most part of the match.
It was a trial game for both teams leading up to the World Cup more than anything, but the only players really putting their hands up were those from the home side.
The Italians failed to get enough phases going to really put any pressure on the Pumas, who's forwards did an outstanding job up front to starve the Azzurri backline of any possession of the ball.
The Pumas however made sure they turned their possession they maintained throughout the match into points in every opportunity they were allowed by the visitors.
The home team played with a lot more urgency than Italy and were handling the rugby ball like a hot potato as they used the width of the field to great effect.
This of course meant the Italians were left to do the majority of the tackling on a humid afternoon that eventually would take it's toll as the Pumas wore their opposition down with their hard running at impressive angles.
The Azzurri certainly showed plenty of commitment though, but as the match wore on in the second half -- the commitment turned into frustration, the frustration turned into penalties and the penalties turned into points for the Argentineans.
Referee Lyndon Bray had his hands full at scrum time with the Italian front row picking up more penalties for their ill-discipline than anywhere else on the pitch. Italy captain and prop Andrea Lo Cicero pushed Bray's patience to the limit and was soon seeing yellow in the third quarter of the match after receiving one warning too many.
In fact the men in blue were forced to play with only fourteen men on the field for the last 20 minutes of the match after flanker Josh Sole was also handed a yellow card ten minutes before his skipper was watching from the sidelines.
The Pumas managed two tries in the first half thanks to wing Francisco Leonelli and full-back Federico Serra in the 25th and 31st minute respectively.
Serra also had a satisfactory day with the boot after kicking four penalties and converting his own try. His first points of the afternoon came three minutes from kick-off after the Italians were penalised for roaming offside.
Argentina were always going to be favourites heading into this match after winning a Test series against Ireland two-nill on their home track.
Even though a whopping nine changes were made from the team which finished off the Irish last weekend, the quality of their play looked as if no adjustments had been made to the line-up at all.
Leonelli's try proved to be the turning point in the match as before the winger scored -- both sides looked very even.
But after outside centre Martín Gaitán went on an impressive dart into open space, the Azzurri defenders were forced to scramble back in defence. The support play did well to recycle the ball quickly enough for skilled prop Omar Hasan to take play up further before throwing a fine pass to Manuel Contepomi, who in turn drew the opposition and put in the final pass to send Leonelli diving over in the corner.
It was thought that Contepomi had released the final pass too early, but Leonelli showed superb pace to help him over for the five-pointer. Serra's conversion attempt was unlucky to hit the upright.
Serra would have better luck just minutes later when scrum-half Nicolás Fernández Miranda put in a wicked box-kick after the restart that saw the bounce nearly beat David Bortolussi on his own goal line. Winger Horacio Agulla chased well and dragged the Italy full-back over the goal-line for a five meter scrum.
The ball went wide after a shaky scrum, but a lovely long pass to Serra saw the number 15 step inside Azzurri wing Kaine Robertson for an excellent try for Argentina.
This time the conversion was more successful and the Pumas held a handy 15-0 lead.
Bortolussi made up for his earlier blunder by securing the first points for the visitors after the home team were blown for offside, but Serra made sure if his side retained their fifteen-point lead after nailing a 45 meter penalty on the stroke of half-time.
That left the score at 18-3 in favour of the Pumas at the break.
The second half would prove to be a half the visiting Italians would care to forget after literally handing the match to Argentina on a silver kicking tee.
Bortolussi got his team off to a good start with an early kick at goal, but two yellow cards resulted in the two penalties the Pumas needed to seal the game and the Italians can count themselves lucky it wasn't more.
The match soon turned into a frustrating stop-start encounter that was jeered on by the crowd who wanted to see more running and certainly more tries been scored.
Alas it wasn't to be and Argentina could at least lift their heads high for a game well played, whilst the Italians will be happy to get to the airport as soon as possible.
Man of the Match: Pumas number eight Juan Manuel Leguizamón. This player shows great promise for the future by the way he commits himself to all facets of play. His work-rate around the pitch is exhausting to watch.
Moment of the Match: Francisco Leonelli's try was a relief for Argentina and their home support. It was also the turning point in the match as from then on the Pumas never seemed to take their foot off the gas -- whilst the Italians couldn't get their boot off the brake.
Villain of the Match: Perhaps the entire Italian front row for giving tons on penalties away and causing far too many restarts that made the colourful crowd and everyone else watching the game very restless.
The scorers:
For Argentina:
Tries: Leonelli, Serra
Cons: Serra
Pens: Serra 4
For Italy:
Pens: Bortolussi 2
Yellow cards: Sole, 45min (Argentina), Lo Cicero 65min (Argentina)
The teams:
Italy: 15 David Bortolussi, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Alessio Galante, 12 Cristian Stoica, 11 Matteo Pratichetti, 10 Christopher Burton, 9 Pablo Canavosio, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Roberto Mandelli, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (captain)
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Fabio Staibano, 19 Antonio Pavanello, 20 Silvio Orlando, 21 Paul Griffen, 22 Ezio Galon
Argentina: 15 Federico Serra, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Martín Gaitán, 12 Manuel Contepomi, 11 Francisco Leonelli, 10 Marcelo Bosch, 9 Nicolás Fernández Miranda, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand (captain), 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Pablo Gambarini, 1 Pablo Henn
Replacements: 16 Eusebio Guiñazú, 17 Santiago González Bonorino, 18 Rimas Álvarez, 19 Martín Schusterman, 20 Nicolás Vergallo, 21 Juan Fernández Miranda, 22 Tomás De Vedia
Referee: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand), Phillip Bosch (South Africa)
Television match official: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
Assessor: Tappe Henning (South Africa)
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