Italy overcame a late Canadian fightback to squeak past 19-14 in a laboured Pool D game, the win unconvincing but nevertheless setting up the Azzurri for a crunch game with Wales.
Not a match that is likely to be talked about in years to come for its quality, the Pool D clash between the two nations was nevertheless an intense, passionate affair which demonstrated just how much was at stake for these two nations.
On this showing, neither side is likely to get their hands on the Webb Ellis Trophy for quite some time (decades? Centuries?), but both teams demonstrated that they would be major contenders if RWC bonus points were dished out for sheer heart and dogged persistence, particularly in the furious finale to this error-strewn match, with Italy barely holding on for the victory after a magnificent last barrage from Canada.
But in the final analysis, Canada will rue the yellow card handed out to centre Marco di Girolamo in the 50th minute, Italy making their one-man advantage count during that ten-minute period to rack up an 10 unanswered points and put the game out of the Canucks' grasp -- just.
First of all, Rima Wakarua converted Di Girolamo's indiscretion into three points and then just four minutes later, Italy No.8 Sergio Parisse picked up a loose ball after a handling error from Canadian scrum-half Morgan Williams to dive over in the left for a try.
With Wakarua adding the extras, it looked as if Italy were home and dry, given that up until that point a Canada try had looked a highly unlikely prospect. The Canucks, as is their wont, had different ideas though and played their best rugby of the match in that last quarter.
After winning clean ball, they launched a crisp, precise move down their backline to put Quentin Fyffe in space. The fullback stretched his legs and scorched over for an excellent try that put the Canucks right back into the match.
With their forwards leading the way, Canada laid siege to the Italian half, gaining another penalty which, agonisingly, bounced off the woodwork.
But Italy were able to hold off the challenge of the Canucks, even when they lost hooker Fabio Ongaro to the sin-bin with just two minutes left on the clock, to keep them in sight of that second qualifying spot behind New Zealand.
They will take heart from that fact that they came out of such a desperately close game with the win and did not self-destruct as has in similar circumstances in previous matches.
It was a stop-start affair from the first whistle as the greasy conditions at Canberra Stadium caused major problems for both sides, particularly in regard to ball retention which was uniformly poor all night.
In skipper Alessandro Troncon, Italy had the best player on the pitch by some margin during the first half, but his team-mates were unable to match the scrum-half's compusure in the face of the typically aggressive challenge presented by Canada.
And when they lost the services of their captain at half-time -- Matteo Mazzantini stepping in at scrum-half -- Italy for a time lost all sense of shape in their game as Canada managed to run them close.
All too often, Italy pushed down into the Canadian 22 but when the pressure came on, found their handling skills deserting them as unforced knock-ons handed the initative straight back to their opponents.
It was Canada who actually got off the mark first, fly-half Jared Barker slotting a penalty in the 11th minute after Italian loosehead Andrea lo Cicero was penalised at a scrum near his own tryline.
That spurred Italy into action and, with Troncon exercising some excellent kicking options from halfback, the Azzurri pushed deep into Canadian territory, No.10 Rima Wakarua drawing his side level with a penalty in the 23rd minute.
There was nothing to separate the two sides at half-time, both kickers kicking three penalties apiece and there was absolutely no hint of the drama that was to come in that nail-biting final quarter.
Man of the Match: Not too many candidates for this category, given the scrambling nature of the match but the Italian lineout can take plenty of the credit for the win, not least Marco Bortolami who looked extremely sharp until his untimely exit. But we'll go for No.8 Sergio Parisse who, as well as winning good off-the-top lineout ball, showed great power to score his side's only try.
Moment of the match: Given the quality of rugby that came before it, Quentin Fyffe's second-half try was an unexpected pleasure -- like walking into a greasy spoon cafe and being served up a meal by a Michelin-starred chef. After a fluent and precise backline move, the Canadian fullback showed tremendous pace to breach the last line of defence and score one of the best tries of RWC 2003 to date.
Villain of the match: We could have gone for Canadian centre Marco Di Girolamo or Italy hooker Fabio Ongaro who both earned yellow cards for pretty blatant ball-killing offences, but then we clapped eyes on Italy flanker Aaron Persico's bizarre, Hannibal Lecter-style face bandage and changed our mind. Whoever wrapped that ridiculous (and pretty scary) gauze around Persico's mug gets our vote in this category.
Italy: 1 Leandro Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 3 Andrea Lo Cicero, 4 Marco Bortolami, 5 Santiago Dellape, 6 Andrea De Rossi, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Sergio Parisse, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Rima Wakarua-Noema, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Mirco Bergamasco, 15 Gonzalo Canale
Reserves: Carlo Festuccia, Matteo Mazzantini, Scott Palmer, Carlo Checchinato, Francesco Mazzariol, Andrea Masi
Unused: Salvatore Perugini
Canada: 1 Rod Snow, 2 Mark Lawson, 3 John Thiel, 4 Alan Charron (c), 5 Colin Yukes, 6 Jamie Cudmore, 7 Jim Douglas, 8 Ryan Banks, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Jared Barker, 11 Dave Lougheed, 12 John Cannon, 13 Marco Di Girolomo, 14 Winston Stanley, 15 Quentin Fyffe
Reserves: Josh Jackson, Kevin Tkachuk
Unused: Aaron Abrams, Sean Fauth, Jeff Reid, Bobby Ross, Matt King
Attendance: 24500
Referee: O'brien p.
Points Scorers:
Italy
Tries: Parisse S.M. 1
Conv: Wakarua-Noema R. 1
Pen K.: Wakarua-Noema R. 4
Canada
Tries: Fyffe Q. 1
Pen K.: Barker J. 3
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