The Wallabies have spluttered their way to a relieving 32-14 victory over Italy at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence.
Australia’s execution let them down badly as they endured a frustrating afternoon, managing to come up with just two tries despite making enough line breaks – mostly through man of the match Quade Cooper – to score a dozen.
The good news was the boot of centre Berrick Barnes correcting the Wallabies’ woeful recent goalkicking record with eight from nine.
The still struggling scrum was penalised six times with the Italians generally dominating the set piece, and that domination contributed to a late try to replacement Robert Barbieri that briefly gave the home side, playing without injured chief playmaker Craig Gower, a sniff.
In the end Australia’s physicality around the park and Italy’s own inability to make their passes stick when opportunity arrived proved the difference.
“It was a genuine Test match, the boys had to work hard for it,” coach Robbie Deans said.
“We were a little bit impatient in the first half, created a lot, didn’t conclude a lot.
“To Italy’s credit they hung in there.
“The blokes showed a lot of composure and earnt the result.”
The Wallabies had already been caught out by a rare airing of the second verse of the national anthem by an Italian brass band, but it looked like their backline would be on song when winger Drew Mitchell crashed over in just the eighth minute.
But Australia’s 13-9 lead at the break looked shaky and they were lucky not to find themselves behind when runaway Italian captain Sergio Parisse threw the ball into touch.
If that typified the Azzurri’s afternoon, Australia steadied with Barnes knocking over penalty goals in the 51st and 54th, 60th and 68th minutes for 25-9.
“He clearly kicked very well, that’s the first time he’s had that responsibility from the start of the Test until the end and it was an exceptional performance,” Deans said.
Barbieri’s try, when he picked up a loose ball at the back of a scrum, made it 25-14 but the missed conversion from winger Mirco Bergamasco took the wind out of Italy’s sails.
The decision from French referee Christophe Berdos, via the TMO, took an eternity, one of several decisions that seemingly took forever, including one on whether a penalty goal from Italy had gone over.
Australian captain Rocky Elsom scored a soft, late five-pointer when he picked up a ball that had squirted out of a scrum in attacking position to stroll over.
Italy coach Nick Mallett praised his side’s defence.
“Australia’s a team that can score tries from anywhere, they’re an extraordinarily good attack,” he said.
“To hold them to only 13-9 at halftime was the best result possible.”
Australia’s victory ended a two-match losing streak on tour but they will be looking for improvement when they take on Six Nations champions and world No.4 side France next weekend.
Mike
Guest
I think this loss served NZ well with an important lesson learned. I.e. Never use Steven Donald against a team ranked higher than 7th in the IRB matchings.
Nashi
Guest
Surprised, not really, different ref therefore the message has to be repeated. Upset, well to say some of us are upset would be overstating the reaction. Didn't see the ABs play Italy last year so can't comment on what happeneed there. However I would stand by anyone who said the public criticism of Dickinson was unfair and unprofessional, like washing dirty linen in public. In this instance I would expect the French ref to get a bollocking behind the sheds and lets move on. Nonetheless it is a clear tactic on the part of any opposition to exploit pre-conceived ideas about the Australian scrum, good luck to them. Paddy should look at his ref and see whether that had any influence on the decisions and if they did well it doesn'r say much for a ref who can't "blow what's in front of you" to bastardise an oft use phrase.....
JohnB
Guest
Mick, my theory is actually that you look at your team, and you look at the team you're playing against, and you try to play the game how you want to play it (taking advantage of your own strengths) and not how the other team wants to play it. There are different ways of playing the game, including different ways of creating platforms. And to be honest I'd be delighted to always watch rugby of the quality produced by the Wallabies for much of this year.
Invictus
Guest
Not only a good sized crowd but a quite vocal one.
kovana
Guest
Pretty handy crowd of 40,015 showed up to watch this match..
Invictus
Guest
OK, my take on the scrum against the Italians. Firstly, a very good, very experienced italian front row provided their wallaby apponents with lesson in the intricacies of front row play. You can go on all you like about their tactics being illegal, and they were, but if the referee is not going to intervene (and you can never be certain that they will) then it is up to our front rowers to find a counter. The italian tactics were pretty simple - the tighthead was scrumming in on the wallaby hooker (what he intended was obvious from the way he set himself at the first scrum) and binding on the wallaby looseheads arm. The italian loosehead was positioning his arm/shoulder at the engagement to make it as difficult as possible for the wallaby tighthead to get a bind. The sum total of these practices is to make it the wallaby front row very unstable and to disrupt the delivery of the ball on the wallaby feed. To counter - it the tighthead is boring in then the loosehead needs to go under and drive up. You may or may not be penalised for this (depending on how the ref is going) but it will certainly get the tightheads attention and should make him less likely to go in on the angle. You do need good strength to be able to pull this off and I'm not sure if the wallaby front rowers are up to it. As for the binding issues, there are a number of solutions most of which depend on the exact nature of what is going on. My only other point is that Alexander's back was curved at just about every scrum. He will not be able to scrum effectively until he manages to pack with a straight back.
RedsNut
Guest
And has sulked and spat the dummy since not being named vice captain.
ronnie88
Guest
Fully agree, Pocock on bench! Please be serious
sphen
Guest
when giteau played at 9 under connelly he played very well. problem was he sulked about being in that position
jameswm
Guest
JOC, Cooper and Pocock on the bench. That team can be taken really seriously.
jeremy
Guest
I have to say as we go on it appears that the HK game bought together the All Blacks worst performance this year with the Wallabies best. All well and good for confidence and building but not the mark in the sand it was initially thought.
DingoBob
Guest
I think this will be a good learning experience for Slipper. Castrogiovanni showed his experience in the first half and I think the Wallabies were a little soft on the engage but obviously the word in the ear at halftime made a difference becasue the Wallabie pounded in on the engage in the 2nd half and earned themselves a deserved penalty. The game agasint France will be interesting to see if the scrum have retained any of the experience they picked up playing the Azzuri.
ajsylvester
Guest
could that be WOW from above (ie Drew's perspective)
allblackfan
Guest
I'd have Ioane ahead of Mitchell/Turner and Pocock in the starting XV any time of day, possibly as a Six; god knows he plays like one while Elsom is seagulling it among the backs like a Seven. Reduce Mortlock to the bench as an impact reserve as well as Vickerman (until he can play his way into form quickly which looks unlikely). Giteau at Nine? What have you been drinking? (I want some!!):-)
Timnaik
Guest
My Wallaby team for 2011: 1. Benn Robinson 2. Tatafu Polota-Nau 3. Ben Alexander 4. Dan Vickerman 5. Nathan Sharpe 6. Scott Higginbotham 7. Rocky Elsom 8. Wyclif Palu 9. Matt Giteau 10. Berrick Barnes 11. Drew Mitchell 12. Adam Ashley-Cooper 13. Stirling Mortlock 14. Lachlan Turner 15. Kurtley Beale Reserves: James Slipper, Stephen Moore, James Horwill, James O'Connor, Quade Cooper, Digby Ioane and David Pocock.
herbert badgery
Guest
Judging by some of these comments, I'm not sure I watched the same game last night... In any event, what we know after another weekend of rugby is that the top three teams in the world are: 1. New Zealand 2. Daylight 3. England Australia and South Africa probably go next, although Fiji would have given both a run for their money yesterday...
Cd
Guest
The Italian front row dived. The ref got sucked in. Its got nothing to do with so called scrum dominance...that's armchair critic stuff. The wallabies could sense they weren't going to get a fair game after that stupid decision to award the Italy try. No wonder they seemed distracted and kicked the ball away. The northern hemisphere teams and referees should be invited to stay at home for next years world cup
Geoff Brisbane
Guest
Wallabies to outsmart French by letting them get in front on the scoreboard only thing it was at full time. Worse Wallaby whingers in world. ANyone care to give me why there was a man of match award as I have seen better Manly v Randwick club matches better than this joke.
Parisien
Guest
Ah thats nasty OJ! Blinky Bill tells us above its Chinese lettering for chi. So thats where he gets his energy from!
Geoff Brisbane
Guest
anyone count the amount of turnovers by the wallabies against a team they clearly should have nailed. I saw Barnes/Burgess and many others drop the ball cold. These are basic errors which seem to be forgotten about as long as the team gets a win. If they repeat that performance next week put your money on France for sure.