Canada blown away by Italy onslaught
Fukuoka – Italy ran amok against Canada to bag their second bonus-point win in as many games with a 48-7 Rugby World Cup victory yesterday and vowed to celebrate with an “old-school night”.
It was not a perfect performance but they did enough to dominate by seven tries to one.
Italy, still with the All Blacks to play as well as South Africa, showed their depth by making 10 changes to the starting XV when they beat Namibia and were still too strong for the Canadians.
A day after Uruguay’s shock win over Fiji, Canada hoped to achieve a similar upset.
The mostly neutral crowd in Fukuoka also gave their support to the Canadians in the 22 000seat stadium, but it was the Italian side with the superior forward pack who controlled most of the game.
In a dominant opening spell, flyhalf Tommaso Allan landed a penalty and converted tries by Braam Steyn and Dean Budd.
Steyn sent Peter Nelson flying and barged between Nick Blevins and Jeff Hassler to go over.
New Zealand-born second-rower Budd, filling in as captain with Sergio Parisse rested, galloped 30 metres through a non-existent defence for his try.
Italy’s explosive start realised 17 points in 15 minutes.
Canada arrested the scoring spree for the remainder of the half, but their own opportunities evaporated with missed tackles and a misfiring lineout.
Replacement Matt Heaton dropped the ball when he had the line at his mercy after Tyler Ardron barged his way through the Italian defence.
DTH van der Merwe confronted Italian fullback Matteo Minozzi with a two-man overlap and fed Gordon McRorie on the outside who was bustled into touch.
The second half was barely three minutes old when Italy were on the board again with Sebastian Negri scoring their third try.
A penalty try for an illegal tackle by Heaton ensured the bonus point for Italy and reduced Canada to 14-men with Heaton in the sin bin.
Mattia Bellini stretched the lead to 36-0 before Andrew Coe scored in the right corner to get Canada on the board.
But the Italian pack over the line for Federico Zani to touch down, and the backline followed with a long-range attack that ended with a try to Minozzi. –