Italy put their faith in experience
Italy coach Nick Mallett has largely kept faith with the team that upset France in the Six Nations, making only two changes to the starting line-up to play Australia in the opening Pool C match.
Mallett rates the Wallabies as the form team heading into the World Cup and says his Azzurri team face the toughest start possible at the New Zealand tournament.
The South African coach named one of his most experienced lineups to face the second-ranked Wallabies in North Harbour on Sunday and is hoping to provide a stern challenge for Robbie Deans’ team.
Mallett announced two changes to the 11th-ranked Italy team that lost 23-12 in a World Cup warm-up at Murrayfield last month, with hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini in for Fabio Ongaro and Alessandro Zanni replacing Paul Derbyshire at blindside flanker.
“As the Queensland Reds won the Super 15 and Australia won the Tri-Nations this year one could argue that they are the form team going into this World Cup,” Mallett told reporters.
“And that would make it the toughest start possible.”
The Azzurri have never beaten Australia in 13 encounters but will be relying on their formidable forward pack to frazzle the Wallabies.
“We’ve played them four times in the four years that I’ve coached and twice in Italy and twice away and every single time they’ve scored 30 points against us, but we’ve been between 10-20 points virtually every time we’ve played,” he said.
“Obviously, we think we’re a side that’s improving and we hope that we can do better than that on Sunday.”
Mallett, surprisingly let go by Italy after four years in charge and despite securing a prestige Six Nations victory over France, has gone for solid experience to unsettle the fancied Wallabies.
“This is the most experienced and the best team that we can put on the field and there were two players who weren’t considered (prop) Salvatore Perugini and (lock) Quintin Geldenhuys.
“They are both recovering from minor injuries and they will be available for Russia (September 20). Otherwise, it’s a team with a lot of experience which we will need against Australia,” he said.
Mallett has faith in his midfield combination and South African-born lock Cornelius van Zyl to get the job done against the Australians.
“Luciano Orquera, Gonzalo Garcia and Gonzalo Canale, the 10-12-13, have played a lot of Tests together and are probably the most experienced in those positions,” he said.
“The three loose forwards played together all through the Six Nations and did particularly well against France and Cornelius has brought a lot of confidence to our lineouts and we hope he will be able to do that against Australia.”
Mallett will also instruct his players to avoid getting bogged down in their own half and maintaining their discipline.
“In our pre-World Cup friendly against Scotland I felt we were trying to play too much rugby in our half and we made a lot of unforced errors against Scotland and we gave away 12-15 points from our mistakes,” he said.
“So obviously we can’t do that against Australia who will punish you severely if you make errors in your own half. We are hoping to avoid giving them too many opportunities to avoid giving them tries on a plate like we did against Scotland.”
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Cornelius Van Zyl, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini, 18 Marco Bortolami, 19 Paul Derbyshire, 20 Edoardo Gori, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Luke McLean.
Date: Sunday, September 11
Kick-off: 15.30 (03.30 GMT)
Venue: North Harbour Stadium, Auckland
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland))
Assistant referees: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
