Italy 14 Australia 32:AUSTRALIA CAPTAIN Rocky Elsom laughed off the dubious quality of his scrambled, late try, and his team's struggles with their national anthem, after Saturday's win in Florence banished memories of last weekend's defeat by England.
“I think it was an exceptional try,” Elsom joked after scoring from a bungled Italy scrum.
Elsom struggled to keep a straight face after his side were lost for words before kick-off when a rarely-heard second verse of their anthem was played. “Had we known it would have been played we would have learnt it,” he said.
Italy coach Nick Mallett picked debutant Edoardo Gori at scrumhalf despite the 20-year-old not being a regular for Magners League side Treviso. The gamble paid off with a strong performance alongside returning outhalf Luciano Orquera.
Berrick Barnes kicked a perfect eight out of eight and he already had three points to his name when Australia got the first try of the game as, when a sweeping attack stopped just short of the line, the ball was recycled and Drew Mitchell bundled over.
Barnes converted, before Mirco Bergamasco put Italy on the board with a penalty.
Barnes re-established Australia’s 10-point lead after 13 minutes. But Italy dug in, not allowing the Wallabies space to play, and clawed their way back into it.
Orquera scored a long-range penalty which just crept over and needed video replays to confirm its validity and Bergamasco added another three-pointer on the hooter to make it 13-9 at half-time.
Italy’s hopes had all but vanished within 10 minutes of the restart, though, as Barnes split the posts with three more penalties.
A fourth made it 25-9, before the Azzurri got a try courtesy of Robert Barbieri. On for Paul Derbyshire, he picked the ball up when it ran lose following a scrum yards from the Australia line and went over, with the Wallabies’ weakness again exposed.
But Elsom made light of Australia’s problems at the very end, collecting from the scrum to go over, with Barnes adding the extras.
ITALY: McLean; Benvenuti, Canale, Sgarbi, M Bergamasco; Orquera, Gori; Lo Cicero, Ongaro, Castrogiovanni, Del Fava, Geldenhuys, Derbyshire, Zanni, Parisse. Replacements: Masi for Sgarbi (61), Bocchino for Orquera (70), Canavosio for Gori (60), Festuccia for Ongaro (48), Cittadini for Castrogiovanni (55), Dellape for Del Fava (67), Barbieri for Derbyshire (55).
AUSTRALIA: Beale, Turner, Ashley-Cooper, Barnes, Mitchell, Cooper, Burgess, Slipper, Moore, Alexander, Simmons, Sharpe, Elsom, Pocock, McCalman. Replacements: Robinson for Slipper, Polota-Nau for Moore, Hodgson for Sharpe Chisholm for Pocock (all 67); McCabe for Ashley-Cooper (79).
Referee: C Berdos(France).
