Italy notch up fifty points in Tokyo

Japan slump to another heavy defeat

Italy opened their two-Test tour of the Pacific with an emphatic 52-6 victory over Japan in Tokyo on Sunday, running seven tries past the flat-footed Brave Blossoms at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

After Japan had opened the scoring in the first minute through a penalty by Shotaro Onishi, Italy took control of the game.  Their scoring started with a try by New Zealand flank, Josh Sole after a charge by the pack with Marco Bortolami in the van.

David Bortolussi, playing his first match for Italy, got the second try and then came the third by Denis Dallan, back in the side after an absence of 19 months.

Ramiro Pez converted the three tries and added a penalty to make the score 24-3 to Italy at half-time.

After Mirco Bergamasco's try had taken the score to 31-3, coach Pierre Berbizier sent on five replacements, all young players to join the other new caps Bortolussi and South African Benjamin de Jager.  On came hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini (21), prop Fabio Staibano (23), flank Robert Barbieri (22), flyhalf Andrea Marcato (23) and the youngest of them all, wing Michele Sepe (19).  That made seven new caps on the field in addition to young scrumhalf Simon Picone who came on for Paul Griffen.

Still Italy pressed on, and lock Santiago Dellapè, originally from Argentina, scored his first Test try.  Even though Sole was sent to the sin bin, Mirco Bergamasco got his second and then De Jager imitated Bortolussi by scoring his second on debut.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  Sole, Bortolussi, Dallan, Mi.  Bergamasco 2, Dellapè, De Jager
Cons:  Pez 4, Marcato 3
Pen:  Pez

For Japan:
Pens:  Onishi 2

The teams:

Italy:  15 David Bortolussi (Montpellier), 14 Benjamin de Jager (Amatori Catania), 13 Andrea Masi (Arix Viadana), 12 Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Français), 11 Denis Dallan (Benetton Treviso), 10 Ramiro Pez (Perpignan), 9 Paul Griffen (Ghial Calvisano), 8 Josh Sole (Arix Viadana), 7 Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Français), 6 Silvio Orlando (Benetton Treviso), 5 Marco Bortolami (Narbonne, captain), 4 Santiago Dellapé (Agen), 3 Carlos Nieto (Arix Viadana), 2 Fabio Ongaro (Benetton Treviso), 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (Conad L'Aquila).
Replacements:  16 Leonardo Ghiraldini (Ghial Calvisano), 17 Fabio STaibano (Overmach Parma), 18 Carlo Antonio del Fava (Bourgoin), 19 Robert Barbieri (Overmach Parma), 20 Simon Picone (Benetton Treviso), 21 Andrea Marcato (Benetton Treviso), 22 Michele Sepe (HDI UR Capitolina).

Japan:  15 Keiji Takei (NEC Green Rockets); 14 Kosuke Endo (Toyota Motor Verblitz), 13 Aatsushi Moriya (Yamaha Jubilo), 12 Yuta Imamura (Waseda University), 11 Nataniela Oto (Toshiba Brave Lupus); 10 Shotaro Onishi (Yamaha Jubilo), 9 Wataru Ikeda (Sanyo Wild Knight); 8 Hajime Kiso (Yamaha Jubilo), 7 Ryota Asano (NEC Green Rockets, captain), 6 Tomoaki Nakai (Toshiba Brave Lupus); 5 Tomoaki Taniguchi (Toyota Motor Verblitz), 4 Takanori Kumagae (Nec Green Rockets); 3 Ryo Yamamura (Yamaha Jubilo), 2 Yuji Matsubara (Kobe Kobelco Steelers), 1 Tomokazu Soma (Sanyo Wild Knight).
Replacement:  16 Takashi Yamaoka (Suntory Sungoliath), 17 Yuichi Hisadomi (NEC Green Rockets), 18 Hitoshi Ono (Toshiba Brave Lupus), 19 Takashi Kikutani (Toyota Motor Verblitx), 20 Mamoru Ito (Toshiba Brave Lupus), 21 Hideyuki Yoshiba (Kubota Spears), 22 Hiroki Mizono (Toyota Motor Verblitz).

Referee:  Scott Young (Australia)
Touch judges:  Lyndon Bray (New Zealand), Paul Marks (Australia)