Two tries: Giulio Toniolatti
Italy ran in nine tries to hammer Russia 53-17 in a rather one-sided World Cup Pool C encounter at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on Tuesday.
The result means Italy move level with Australia on five points in a pool that could have a massive impact on the make up of the play-offs.
The Russian scrum was moving in reverse as soon as the ref said 'engage', meaning the Italian backs had plenty of quality first-phase ball to work with - and they used to deadly effect.
The World Cup newcomers put on a gallant display against the USA last week but were simply outclassed by a more experienced, more clinical side.
It wasn't all bad news for the Russians, who scored three good tries - their first in World Cup competition - in an entertaining game.
Six first-half tries gave Italy a 38-7 lead at the break with wing Giulio Toniolatti grabbing two and referee Wayne Barnes awarding a penalty try against the Russian scrum.
Centre Tommaso Benvenuti added his second after the restart as Nick Mallett's side touched down three more times to break to the 50-point barrier in a more evenly-contested second half.
It took just six minutes for Italy to open the scoring as skipper Sergio Parisse crossed at the end of a flowing move.
It was one-way traffic for most of the rest of the half with Toniolatti, Benvenuti and scrum-half Edoardo Gori following their captain's example.
Russia did manage to sneak a try, with scrum-half Alexander Yanyushkin striking with a sniping run immediately after Italy were reduced to fourteen when hooker Fabio Ongaro saw yellow for a late tackle.
It was much the same for Italy at the start of the second half as wing Luke McLean and replacement flank Alessandro Zanni drove the Azzurri's advantage home.
But Russia finished strongly as they chased a four-try bonus point. It wasn't to be, but well-taken tries from wing Vladimir Ostroushko and centre Alexey Makovetskiy were just reward for the Bears' hard work.
Man of the match: He only played 56 minutes before being pulled off and wrapped in cotton wool, but Sergio Parisse was phenomenal, scoring one try and having a hand in creating three more. Pure class. A mention too for his opposite number, Victor Gresev, who worked tirelessly.
Moment of the match: Parisse's try had the Bears on the ropes and Giulio Toniolatti's first try gave the Italians a healthy lead. Not only was it a wonderful try to watch, but it effectively ended any suspends regarding the result.
Villain of the match: No bad guys tonight.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Tries: Parisse, Toniolatti 2, Benvenuti 2, penalty try, Gori, McLean, Zanni
Cons: Bocchino 4
For Russia:
Tries: Yanyushkin, Ostroushko, Makovetskiy
Con: Rachkov
Yellow card: Ongaro (Italy - 32nd min - late tackle)
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giulio Toniolatti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Matteo Pratichetti, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Riccardo Bocchino, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (capt), 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Paul Derbyshire, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Cornelius van Zyl, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Luciano Orquera, 22 Alberto Sgarbi.
Russia: 15 Igor Klyuchnikov, 14 Vasily Artemyev, 13 Andrey Kuzin, 12 Alexey Makovetskiy, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Konstantin Rachkov, 9 Alexander Shakirov, 8 Victor Gresev , 7 Andrey Garbuzov, 6 Vyacheslav Grachev , 5 Adam Byrnes, 4 Alexander Voytov, 3 Ivan Prishchepenko, 2 Vladislav Korshunov (c), 1 Vladimir Botvinnikov
Replacements: 16 Valery Tsnobiladze, 17 Alexander Khrokin, 18 Denis Antonov, 19 Artem Fatakhov, 20 Alexander Yanyushkin, 21 Mikhail Sidorov, 22 Yury Kushnarev.
Venue: Trafalgar Park, Nelson
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant referees: Steve Walsh, Chris Pollock
TMO: Shaun Veldsman
Comments
houston_11 says...
@leinster_goy
That was quite profound. Couldn't agree more with your statement... as an Ireland fan as well ;)
Posted 12:51 21st September 2011
startledwombat says...
Certainly a much larger and more meaningful pool of nations than other oval-ball games:
Rugby League
Gridiron
Australian Rules Football
Russia to win a game at the next World Cup!
Posted 23:20 20th September 2011
carpelone says...
Just managed to see the match. Not much to worry about for Ireland.
Posted 21:52 20th September 2011
melkdave says...
Wow all these arguments of the quality of some teams .Look these teams Russia-Namiba-Japan-Romainia have earned the right to play at the RWC and test themselves against the major rugby powers.Its the general consesus of most rugby fans/ players ect that the gap has closed in the last 4 years.Only 4 years ago we where gettinf 80-100+ point games Now we have had 1 so far 50+ point game and the so called weaker teams have produced some great games to watch.Infact some tier 2 teams like Georgia -Samoa -Canada ect are now going to be intergrated in to the tier 1 nations test schedual .So please everyone dont begrudge the smaller teams right to play at a RWC .Its very narrow minded and will stunt rugbys development worldwide .Evrn in football(soccer) you get /got thrashings but they like rugby are getting rareer and of lesser scope .The game id growing and becoming more popular and thats good lets not now spoil it by being introspective .
God havent wriiten so much about a non subject in ages lol
Posted 18:12 20th September 2011
melkdave says...
Not an unexpected result the experiance of the azurri was just to much for the russain bears .But got to tip my hat off to the bears never gave up and scored 3 tries and made the game enjoyable to watch espically 2nd half when they seemed to sort ssome of their problems out .Given 4 years to work on the technical problems ect could be a big syrprise for many teams
Posted 17:44 20th September 2011
leinster_goy says...
@porridgetime
the question of "elitism" is interesting in this context. i personally have lived in quite a few mainland european countries and each time i have discussed rugby with the people i meet. the general idea i get is that rugby in many countries is considered to be an intrinsically "elite" sport, in other words it is considered to be a sport more popular among the upper-middle classes. the elitism is also relative, in that sports like football are viewed as more exciting, easily understandable and accessible, particularly for young kids. even in countries like ireland and scotland which have a rich rugby tradition you have to admit that it is much easier to organise a game of footy in the street with your mates, and much easier to convince others to start playing it, as opposed to rugby. accessibility is really the key here
what im saying here is that we might just have to accept the fact that rugby will not be able to establish itself in many countries, even in Europe. of course there are exceptions - the romanian rugby team is well developed due to the country's close historic ties with france who imported the game there, and as for georgia, they have a tradition of playing a sport called "lelo" which is very similar to rugby. but generally, rugby will remain for many an exotic and "elite" sport, like it or loath it
we might have to accept that rugby will always have a smaller international pool then football does, and as long as it does, then i think the quality of global tournaments like the WC should be ensured as much as possible, while of course also encouraging smaller nations to develop but not unduly giving them a leg up. if that is "elitist", then so be it.
but if we decide that we are not all "elitists" in this way, then why not go the whole hog, open the floodgates and expand the WC well beyond 20?
Posted 17:26 20th September 2011
porridge_time says...
leinster
You truly are coming across as an elistist.
Posted 15:59 20th September 2011
blametheref says...
A lot here seem to be saying that it's good to see the Russias etc competing at the WC and I am in full agreement with that but it has to be said that the IRB are really not allowing some of these teams do themselves justice when they penalize them with 3 and 4 day match turnarounds, similar to Samoa, who were clearly disadvantaged by this kind of treatment against Wales
Posted 15:52 20th September 2011
lele says...
@leinster_goy
you wrote "if i was a russian, that game today would not induce me to watch the russian team more"
do you remember what have been the results of italy in the last decade? but people here is knowing and supporting every year more the national team...i don't think that losing all the matches at your first WC seems too bad. and the Russians who saw the match with the usa surely have cheered until the last second
Posted 15:38 20th September 2011
lawynd says...
@leinster_goy - there's little point listening to your opinion when you make such basic errors as talking about growing 'grass roots rugby' in countries like Japan, Georgia and Russia, as if they haven't been doing this for quite some time already.
As for the others sticking up for him, some of you are confusing his rants against 'lesser' nations as some sort of endorsement for better RWC scheduling. He's been banging this drum for over a week now and it's painfully obvious that his 'solution' to the scheduling is simply to tell everyone below 16th in the world to foxtrot oscar when it comes to the RWC. Oh but wait...doesn't that still mean that Canada, Japan and Georgia still make it? In fact, of the current tournament teams, the only ones that would suffer are Namibia, Russia, Romania and the USA. The latter would certainly be rather upset with the labels of 'minnows' or 'cannon fodder' that I've seen bandied about...
Posted 15:21 20th September 2011
leinster_goy says...
@fozza
i agree totally, that's what i've been saying. the current 20-team format is hindering the tier 2 teams that, unlike others, have actually made progress. georgia, canada and romania have improved but they have ridiculously short rest periods, so they can't really perform to their maximum potential and show us what they're made of. that's why a 16-team WC with 6/7 day rest for everyone and competitive qualification would be better. can the rest of you not even consider that this makes sense?
Posted 15:06 20th September 2011
GCP_JONES says...
@ atg77 ....
You have it right regarding one possible out-come, the one thing Irish fans should not lose sight off is that for some reason We Irish don't do 'Favourites Tag' very well.
The Italians with this result have thrown down the gaunlet to Ireland saying go out on Sunday and get a bonus point,as I said earlier that is no dead cert the way our back-line have been playing.Then you have to face us a week later, and as any one is aware we will not have the upper hand in the pack against the Italians, as we did on Saturday.
Posted 14:54 20th September 2011
Carpelone says...
@ Islandpower
Good point, mate. Would like to see Wales against Samoa after they have the same amount of rest. It could have well gone the other way.
@ atg77
Ireland will make presumably 13 points before the decider. Italy, if manage to get a winning bonus point, will get 10. A 4-1 victory for Italy should do the job for them, as normally (on 14 points all) the result of the match between the two teams should be the first criterion. But I am not sure. PR can you please help us?
This is true in the hypothesis that Australia take other 10 points.
Posted 14:42 20th September 2011
leinster_goy says...
look, i'm gonna say this one last time: i am a leinster fan, NOT an ireland fan (although i am always glad to see them do well, especially last saturday, i do not actively support them). so you can keep making retorts about the irish team, but they mean nothing and have no bearing on my arguments
the consensus here (and in other threads) seems to be that the rugby WC is all about showcasing high-quality rugby to the world as well as promoting the sport in the countries with weaker teams who have qualified. of course, those two aims are incompatible since a tournament cannot be of the highest standard if there are so many weak teams in the pool stage, leading to regular thrashings and top teams playing games at training ground speed. personally, if i was a russian, that game today would not induce me to watch the russian team more. i doubt it would have encouraged many russian kids to start playing rugby. ditto the nz v japan game. that's not how it works. rugby has to be developed from the bottom up. there has to be a will to play it at grassroots level. you cant just increase the available places at the WC and hope lesser teams will catch up that way. that approach removes incentives to develop and improve. in any case, i suspect that very few japanese/russians/americans are watching these games, and that's not just because of timezone differences or weekday scheduling
also, as someone else has pointed out, if the logic is simply to promote rugby in countries where it is hardly played, then why keep the WC at 20? why not keep on expanding the WC to 24, or 32, like the FIFA world cup/UEFA champions league? if you insist on adhering to the socialist view of sport (which appears to infect the IRB as well) then that seems to be the next logical step.
@curates egg @HJDK, thank you for your solidarity.
Posted 14:28 20th September 2011
fozza says...
Some valid points here and I agree we need to lay off Leinster_goy as he makes a valid point which is more relevant to other teams and fixtures (Samoa springs to mind but also Georgia who may have caused England even more trouble if they weren't expected to play Scotland 4 days earlier).
If we truly want a competitive competition we should balance out the games and the rest times. You can't tell me the viewing figures for an England game fall away that much at 06:00 in the morning if it's a Wednesday or a Saturday!? With that in mind why not give the stronger team the shorter turnaround and allow the Georgians the rest and the better viewing times? What better way to raise the profile of the games in other countries?
Having said that my argument, maybe doesn't stand up for teams like Georgia or Samoa where it's already their national sports... There's a point to this comment somewhere!!!!
Posted 14:27 20th September 2011
atg77 says...
Come to think of it, it seems bonus points is exacty what Mallet has in mind- he knows exactly what they have to do to qualify.
Posted 14:06 20th September 2011
atg77 says...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Italy beat the USA with a bonus point and then beat Ireland, they will progress to the quarters and the Irish will be out of the WC.
Posted 14:03 20th September 2011
atg77 says...
The world cup is about exposing "lesser" teams to a higher level of rugby and capturing the imaginations of countries like the USA and Russia. With the trinations and six nations sides basically refusing to play tier two nations now on tour or in the November test windows, (except the pacific islands, depending on what tier you consider them to be)
this is the only chance they have.
Posted 14:01 20th September 2011
J_HDK says...
I think it is unfair to dole out this amount of abuse to Leinster_goy.
- Each pool has five teams which means that there is a clear disparity in the amount of rest time teams get between matches (eg Samoa)
The pools I believe should only be four pools four teams each and there should be a higher qualification standard for the final places. Either that or youre going to have to open it up to eight pools of four... and looking at the teams ranked 20-32.. I don't think there would be much point of that in the next 12 years
Posted 13:18 20th September 2011
lele says...
well done guys! some things to adjust (like line defence movement and tackle one on one)...i'm waiting oct 2 but...
i think if the first match was italy-ireland the prediction was more doubtful, ireland was coming from 4 matches on the losing side and low morale, but after 3 weeks on playing together the irish are stronger than italy
(please let me change my opinion!!!!)
Posted 12:41 20th September 2011