Hat-trick for Ioane seals victory for Italy
MATCH REPORT: Italy convincingly beat Japan 42-21 on Saturday in both teams’ final warm-up match before the World Cup in France.
Monty Ioane scored a hat-trick of tries book-ended by Stephen Varney and Martin Page-Relo scores in a deserved win at a sweltering Stadio Monigo in Treviso.
Tommaso Allan kicked 17 points as the Azzurri won their second straight Test match after hammering Romania last weekend.
Japan scored three unconverted tries through Jone Naikabula, Clermont back Kotaro Matsushima and Dylan Riley, with Lee Seung-sin kicking two penalties.
Kieran Crowley’s Italy have also lost to Ireland and Scotland in their preparations for a hugely difficult Pool A at the World Cup.
Italy have been drawn with hosts France and New Zealand in a five-team pool which also features Namibia and Uruguay.
With two teams going through to the quarter-finals Italy will have to beat either France or the All Blacks if they are to reach the knockout stages for the first time.
Scorers:
For Italy:
Tries: Varney, Ioane 3, Page-Relo
Cons: Allan 4
Pens: Allan 3
For Japan:
Tries: Naikabula, Matsushima, Riley
Pens: Lee 2
Teams:
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Ivan Nemer.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 Giovanni Pettinelli, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Martin Page-Relo, 23 Paolo Odogwu.
Japan: 15 Kotaro Matsushima, 14 Semisi Masirewa, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Tomoki Osada, 11 Jone Naikabula, 10 Seungshin Lee, 9 Yutaka Nagare, 8 Kazuki Himeno, 7 Shota Fukui, 6 Michael Leitch, 5 Uwe Helu, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 3 Jiwon Gu, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Craig Millar.
Replacements: 16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Keita Inagaki, 18 Asaeli Ai Valu, 19 Amanaki Saumaki, 20 Ben Gunter, 21 Naoto Saito, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Ryoto Nakamura.
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
Assistant referees: Chris Busby (Ireland), Anthony Woodthorpe (England)
TMO: Stuart Terheege (England)
