Argentina 36 Italy 6

Argentina, who had ran the Wallabies close in Buenos Aires a fortnight previously, hammered perennial Six Nations wooden-spoonists Italy by 36-6 at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome.

The visitors led 15-6 at half-time thanks to first-half tries from outside centre José Orengo and right-wing Ignacio Corleto, and one conversion and one penalty by Felipe Contepomi, while all Italy had to show from their day out were two early penalties from flyhalf and points-machine Diego Dominguez.

Dominguez, who scored all the Azzurri's points in the first 10 minutes of the match via two penalty goals, enjoyed an unhappy afternoon out, and he was replaced in the second half by South African-born flyhalf Gert Peens.

Corleto's try came in the 35th minute -- with Argentina leading 8-6 -- just one minute before Argentina's lock forward Pedro Sporleder was due to return from the sin bin.

The Italians, who face Australia in Genoa next Saturday, were blown off the park by the well-drilled Puma pack in the second half, with the visitors adding another three-pointers in the last 40 minutes.

Flanker Rolando Martín, Leeds winger Diego Albanese and replacement loose forward Martin Durand were the second half try-scorers, despite a brave performance from Italian fullback Mirco Bergamasco.

Martín crossed for his try in the 69th minute, after a scoring drought of 34 minutes, but Argentina more than made up for it thanks to Albanese and Durand's tries in the last 10 minutes.

The last time Italy and Argentina met, in Buenos Aires in July last year, the Pumas triumphed by 38-17, but the Azzurri were expected to put up a better fight this time around.

The Teams:

Argentina:  1 Roberto Grau, 2 Federico Mendez, 3 Omar Hasan Jalil, 4 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Rolando Martin, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 9 Agustin Pichot, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Jose Orengo, 14 Gonzalo Camardon, 15 Ignacio Corleto
Reserves:  Martin Durand, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Juan Fernandez Miranda, Mauricio Reggiardo, Pedro Sporleder
Unused:  Jose Nunez Piossek, Juan Jose Villar

Italy:  1 Gianluca Faliva, 2 Andrea Moretti, 3 Federico Pucciariello, 4 Marco Bortolami, 5 Santiago Dellape, 6 Salvatore Garozzo, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Scott Palmer, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Nicola Mazzucato, 12 Matteo Barbini, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Paolo Vaccari, 15 Mirco Bergamasco
Reserves:  Leandro Castrogiovanni, Fabio Ongaro, Enrico Pavanello, Gert Peens, Cristian Zanoletti, Sergio Parisse
Unused:  Juan Manuel Queirolo

Referee:  Cole a.

Points Scorers:

Argentina
Tries:  Corletto I. 1, Orengo J. 1, Albanese D.L. 1, Martin R.A. 1, Durand M. 1
Conv:  Contepomi F. 2, Fernandez Miranda J. 2

Italy
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 2