Australia 34 Italy 3

Australia finally managed a victory from their European tour when they ran out 34-3 victors over Italy at Genoa's Stadio Luigi Ferraris, wing Scott Staniforth touching down a pair of tries in an unspectacular triumph played in atrocious weather conditions.

Hot on the heels of their narrow loss at to England and their previous shock defeat to Ireland in the Dublin rain, the Wallabies knew an inspiring performance against the Azzurri was the order of the day to restore the faith of their sporting public, but in the end it did not quite reach those heights.

In fact, Eddie Jones' men even failed to surpass the scoreline that Argentina had racked up the previous week against John Kirwan's Italians in Rome, with the home side lacking their inspirational fly-half Diego Dominguez and both teams hampered by the rain.

It was Waratah Staniforth who made the margin of victory look all the more comfortable with two quickfire first-half tries, Brumbies lock Justin Harrison having got the visitors off to the perfect start with an earlier try.

A sole penalty from Dominguez's replacement, Rotherham's Ramiro Pez, was all the Azzurri had to show for their efforts, his long effort sending the Italians into the interval at 17-3 down.

The home side were not to score again in the whole match, and as the rain started to pour down in the soccer stadium used by the city's two clubs Sampdoria and Genoa, back-row Toutai Kefu rumbled over for the Wallabies' fourth try, bursting some tackles en-route.

Stirling Mortlock -- in at fullback for the injury-ravaged Australians -- completed their scoring eight minutes from time with some swift footwork on his way to the tryline, although their failure to rack-up a big score could see the questions keep on coming for the Wallabies, with the World Cup only a year away.

The teams:

Australia:  1 Patricio Noriega, 2 Adam Freier, 3 Bill Young, 4 Justin Harrison, 5 Daniel Vickerman, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 George Smith, 8 Toutai Kefu, 9 George Gregan (c), 10 Elton Flatley, 11 Wendell Sailor, 12 Matthew Burke, 13 Dan Herbert, 14 Scott Staniforth, 15 Stirling Mortlock
Reserves:  Brendan Cannon, David Giffin, Matt Giteau, Chris Whitaker, Mark Bartholomeusz, David Croft, Ben Darwin

Italy:  1 Leandro Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 3 Andrea Lo Cicero, 4 Enrico Pavanello, 5 Marco Bortolami, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Sergio Parisse, 9 Juan Manuel Queirolo, 10 Ramiro Pez, 11 Nicola Mazzucato, 12 Matteo Barbini, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Paolo Vaccari, 15 Mirco Bergamasco
Reserves:  Gianluca Faliva, Andrea Moretti, Gert Peens, Cristian Zanoletti, Scott Palmer, Mark Giacheri, Alessandro Troncon

Referee:  Deluca p.

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Kefu R.S.T. 1, Mortlock S.A. 1, Staniforth S.N.G. 2, Harrison J.B.G. 1
Conv:  Burke M.C. 3
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 1

Italy
Pen K.:  Pez R. 1