Seven-try Italy cruise past Canada

Italy continued their fine start to their Rugby World Cup campaign when they notched a 48-7 bonus-point win over Canada in Fukuoka on Thursday.

The Azzurri were full value for their victory as they dominated most facets of play and had the bulk of possession and territory.

They eventually outscored their hapless opponents by seven tries to one with Braam Steyn, Dean Budd, Sebastian Negri, Mattia Bellini, Federico Zani and Matteo Minozzi all crossing the whitewash, and they were also awarded a penalty try.

Tommaso Allan contributed nine points, after succeeding with three conversions and a penalty, while Carlo Canna also added a conversion.  For Canada, Andrew Coe scored a try which was converted by Peter Nelson.

Italy held the upper hand from the kick off and opened the scoring as early as the third minute courtesy of a penalty from Allan.  They continued to dominate as the half progressed and were up 17-0 after 13 minutes thanks to two well-taken converted tries from Steyn and Budd.

Steyn’s try came in the eighth minute after a barnstorming run off the back of a scrum on the Canucks’ five-metre line and he showed great determination to power his way over, despite the attentions of two defenders.

Five minutes later, Budd took the ball into contact on the edge of Canada’s 22 and burst through a poor tackle from Matt Tierney before racing away to score under the posts.

Canada held a slight edge during the next 10 minutes but, despite spending most of that time inside the Azzurri’s half, they had nothing to show for their efforts.  Midway through the half, they wasted a golden opportunity to open their account when Matt Heaton knocked on a pass from Tyler Ardron with the try-line at his mercy.

The rest of the half was characterised by several unforced errors from both teams which prevented further points from being scored during that period.  In the 31st minute, a flowing move from the Canucks deep inside the Azzurri’s half came to nothing when Gordon McRorie stepped into touch.

Italy also had a chance to extend their lead shortly before half-time when they launched a lineout drive close to Canada’s try-line but they could not breach their opponents’ defence.

Full-time | Impressive display from @Federugby.

They get their 2nd win at #RWC2019 after beating @RugbyCanada 48-7 #ITAvCAN#RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/0BeKSPEUlE

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 26, 2019

That meant the Azzurri were 17-0 up at the interval and they extended that lead shortly after the restart when Negri crossed for their third try, after the ball went through several phases in the build-up.

The next 15 minutes was an arm wrestle as Italy went in search of their bonus-point and that came on the hour-mark when Heaton illegally halted a lineout drive close to his try-line, resulting in a penalty try and yellow card for his indiscretion.

Shortly afterwards, the Azzurri went further ahead when Bellini gathered a perfectly-weighted long pass from Negri before outpacing the cover defence on his way over the try-line, which meant his side were cruising with the score 36-0 in their favour.

Despite being well and truly beaten, Canada did not surrender and were rewarded in the 70th minute when Andrew Coe beat Giulio Bisegni with outstanding footwork before diving over in the right-hand corner.

Nelson added the extras which added some respectability to the score but Italy finished stronger and sealed an emphatic win with late tries from Zani and Minozzi.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  Steyn, Budd, Negri, Penalty try, Bellini, Zani, Minozzi
Cons:  Allan 3, Canna
Pen:  Allan

For Canada:
Try:  Coe
Con:  Nelson
Yellow Card:  Heaton

Italy:  15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Jayden Hayward, 11 Giulio Bisegni, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Braam Steyn, 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd (c), 4 David Sisi, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements:  16 Federico Zani, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Maxime Mbandà, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Mattia Bellini

Canada:  15 Patrick Parfrey, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Ben Lesage, 12 Nick Blevins, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Peter Nelson, 9 Gordon McRorie, 8 Tyler Ardron (c), 7 Lucas Rumball, 6 Michael Sheppard, 5 Josh Larsen, 4 Conor Keys, 3 Matt Tierney, 2 Eric Howard, 1 Hubert Buydens
Replacements:  16 Benoit Piffero, 17 Djustice Duru-Sears, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Luke Campbell, 20 Matt Heaton, 21 Jamie Mackenzie, 22 Ciaran Hearn, 23 Andrew Coe

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees:  Wayne Barnes (England), Karl Dickson (England)
TMO:  Rowan Kitt (England)