Rugby World Cup, Italy beats Uruguay 38-17 and takes the lead

Another success, again with the bonus point and Italy returns to the top of group A, ahead of France and New Zealand. With Uruguay it ends 38-17 – 5 tries to 2 – it is the victory that guarantees us a place at the next World Cup in 2027. But what an effort, after a first half played for 10 minutes with two men less and ended with 10 points of disadvantage.

Lights off

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Italy in the first half is too bad to be true. He wasn’t convincing on his debut against Namibia and even in Nice (where there isn’t a full house in the stands) he manages to complicate his life, after the illusion of Pani’s initial try converted by Allan (6′). Uruguay is the same as we saw against France, all grit and indiscipline, but it was enough to force the Azzurri into a prolonged defense in their own half. Ardau hurt us a lot with four stolen balls in the breakdown and when Capuozzo tried to organize the counterattack we came out with two pars out of three attempts. The last one is the most painful, Lamaro misses the forward pass (24′), Etcheverry thanks him and takes off to the 5 meter line. The blue tackle is the start of twelve phases of attack which end in the worst possible way: in the 27th minute yellow for Niccolò Cannone, yellow for Fischetti and a free kick try (7-7). With two less men in the fray, Crowley runs for cover by removing Pani for Nemer who immediately makes himself “noticed” for a tackle on a distant ball. Despite a moving defense (Negri in 50th caps among the best), Uruguay still scores with Freitas, converted by Etcheverry (7-14). At the end of the opening the two free-kicks made amends with a millimetric drop (7-17).

Another gear

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It seems like a nightmare, but Italy once again proves to be something else entirely. At the start of the second half Uruguay immediately lost captain Vilaseca (yellow) and fell apart. Lamaro immediately takes advantage of this and redeems himself with his first goal in blue (14-17). Crowley introduces Ceccarelli and Lamb and immediately finds the third try – the counter-overtaking one – with Ioane who smashes between the posts. There is always Allan’s hand, surgical even in the transformations (21-17). 4′ pass and there is glory for Lorenzo Cannone, who does well to resist a double tackle before scoring the fourth try, the bonus point (28-17). After 60′ of play Uruguay no longer exists and Italy can end the match as they see fit: Brex’s goal arrives (35-17), important minutes of play for Fusco, Zuliani, Pettinelli, Nemer again, Zani and Odogwu, inside instead of a sumptuous Allan. In the 70th minute Garbisi scores the free kick to make it 38-17. The result no longer changes, for Italy it is the second success out of two which is worth the pass to the next Australian World Cup in 2027.