Allan stars as Azzurri fight off Georgian strong men

TOMASSO Allan inspired the Azzurri as they overcame bullish, resolute Georgian rivals in a real physical battle in Florence.

The fly-half pulled the strings with accurate, intelligent kicking from both hand and turf as the hosts bounced back from their 54-7 thrashing by the Irish in Chicago.

It was only the second time these two countries have clashed, with Italy defeating the Georgians 31-22 in Asti 15 years ago.

And this was just as closely fought for the majority of the contest, although Italy always had too many weapons to hurt their visitors whenever the pressure was turned up.

Georgia, who are in Wales’ World Cup pool, were fired up to try and give their supposedly superior rivals a bloody nose. Italy led 18-7 at the break but Georgia had stunned the home fans with the opening try after Allan had kicked a penalty to give Italy an early 3-0 advantage.

Centre Tamaz Mchedlidze used his power to shrug off three tacklers and reach over the line. Iosed Matiashvili added the extras but they were damaged by the sinbinning of flanker Giorgi Tsutskiridze.

Centre Michele Campagnaro had struck back for the Azzurri with a fine try, using his skill and running prowess to slice between two Georgian tacklers and ground the ball with Allan converting.

Then New Zealand referee Glen Jackson had little choice but to eventually show Tsutskiridze a yellow card for running straight into the leaping Luca Sperandio and sending the Italian crashing awkwardly to the turf.

It was a dangerous act by the Georgian forward which could easily have seen the player shown a red card. Fortunately for him and Sperandio, the victim fell on his shoulder and not his head.

Wing Mattia Bellini dived over in the left hand corner after the depleted Georgian defence was stretched to breaking point again. Prop Simone Ferrari rampaged over for Italy’s third try just two minutes into the second half. Matiashvili replied with a penalty but the Georgians were tiring and Allan swept through a large gap for the fourth try.

Italy were reduced to 14 men and Georgia awarded a penalty try when Tommaso Benvenuti was shown a yellow card for tackling his man before he could catch the ball within feet of the line. It was a flowing move which certainly deserved a try before Benvenuti illegally intervened. But from there the Italy defence held firm.