Burton gives Canucks the boot

Italy fly-half Kris Burton kicked 20 points to help guide his team to a 25-16 win over Canada in Toronto on Friday.

In a bruising encounter, the Australian-born pivot slotted six penalties and a conversion to overturn a 13-9 half-time deficit and hand the visitors victory.

Canada, who edged the United States 28-25 last week, have now lost four consecutive times to the Italians.

The hosts looked solid for much of the match against an underwhelming Italian team that had an advantage in the scrum but failed to make it pay until the final quarter of the game.  Outmanned in the scrum, the Canadians ultimately paid the price for a high penalty count and an accurate kicker.

Canada full-back James Pritchard kicked three penalty goals and converted Conor Trainor's first-half try after the winger scooped up a loose ball lost by Italian scrum-half Tito Tebaldi and scored the lone touchdown of the first half under the posts to put Canada ahead 13-6 on the way to a 13-9 half-time edge.

A Burton penalty pulled Italy within a point (13-12), before the Six Nations outfit took the lead for good thanks to Tommaso D'Apice's try in the 50th minute off a driving maul.  Burton added the conversion for a 19-13 advantage.

Pritchard pulled Canada closer with a penalty kick, but Burton added two more three-pointers, the last with less than eight minutes remaining.

Pritchard then missed his first kick in the 75th minute that allowed the visitors to hang on for their first win on tour, after losing to Argentina last week.

The scorers:

For Canada:
Try:  Trainor
Con:  Pritchard
Pens:  Pritchard 3

For Italy:
Try:  D'Apice
Con:  Burton
Pens:  Burton 6

Canada:  15 James Pritchard, 14 Conor Trainor, 13 DTH Van der Merwe, 12 Mike Scholz, 11 Phil Mackenzie, 10 Matt Evans, 9 Sean White, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Chauncey O'Toole, 6 Tyler Ardron, 5 Tyler Hotson, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Jason Marshall, 2 Mike Pletch, 1 Hubert Buydens.
Replacements:  16 Andrew Tiedemann, 17 Tom Dolezel, 18 Jon Phelan, 19 Nanyak Dala, 20 Edward Fairhurst, 21 Liam Underwood, 22 Ciaran Hearn.

Italy:  15 Alberto Benettin, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Andrea Pratichetti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Tommaso Benvenuti, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Simone Favaro, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Antonio Pavanello, 4 Joshua Furno, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Tommaso D'Apice, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements:  16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Lorenzo Romano, 18 Marco Fuser, 19 Mauro Bergamasco, 20 Edoardo Gori, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Giulio Toniolatti.

Referee:  David Pearson (England)