Azzurri beat Japan to tie rugby series
MATCH REPORT: Italy completed a nail-biting 25-22 away win over Japan on Saturday to tie their two-test series against the 2019 World Cup hosts.
The Italians attacked with real purpose in Kobe after being humbled 17-34 by the Brave Blossoms last weekend, but needed two clutch penalties from flyhalf Tommaso Allan to repel a furious late Japan fightback.
Tommaso Benvenuti opened the scoring in the 19th minute after early Italian pressure, diving over in the corner after good work from Marcello Violi.
A superb driving maul gave Italy captain Leonardo Ghiraldini the opportunity to extend his side’s lead before a Yu Tamura penalty reduced the deficit to 12-3 going into the half-time break.
When Jake Polledri added a converted try for the visitors soon after the restart, the floodgates looked set to open with Japan wobbling.
But as tempers began to fray, Will Tupou and Amanaki Mafi crashed over the tryline in quick succession to haul the Japanese to within two points.
Allan slotted two late penalties and appeared to have dashed Japan’s hopes of a comeback before Kotaro Matsushima’s last-minute try set up a nervous final few seconds.
The scorers:
For Japan:
Tries: Tupou, Mafi, Matsushima
Cons: Matsuda 2
Pen: Tamura
For Italy:
Tries: Benvenuti, Ghiraldini, Polledri
Cons: Allan 2
Pens: Allan 2
Teams:
Japan: 15 Kotaru Matsushima, 14 Lomano Lemeki, 13 Will Tupou, 12 Timothy Lafaele, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Kazuki Himeno, 7 Michael Leitch (captain), 6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 5 Samuela Anise, 4 Wimpie Van Der Walt, 3 Ji-Won Koo, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Keita Inagaki.
Replacements: 16 Yusuke Niwai, 17 Shintaro Ishihara, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Uwe Helu, 20 Amanaki Mafi, 21 Yutaka Nagare, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Ryoto Nakamura.
Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Matteo Minozzi, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Abraham Steyn, 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain), 1 Andrea Lovotti.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Cherif Traore, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Marco Fuser, 20 Giovanni Licata, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Giulio Bisegni.
Referee: Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Nic Berry (Australia)
TMO: Rowan Kitt (England)
Agence France-Presse
