Azzurri hang tough against desperate Georgians

MATCH REPORT: Italy had to hang tough against a desperate Georgia team, claiming a hard-earned 20-17 win at Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa on Sunday.

Dominating possession and territory, the Azzurri only scored the winning try in the final quarter.

The Lelos were also undone by their poor discipline - conceding 15 penalties to six and were fortunate not to have had more than one yellow card.

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A penalty try and a score from replacement scrumhalf Alessandro Fusco helped Gli Azzurri come back from 11 points down against the Lelos - the biggest comeback in their history.

Georgia had led 17-6 at half-time thanks to tries from Akaki Tabutsadze and Vasil Lobzhanidze, but Italy slowly worked their way back into the match before Fusco’s score put them back in front just after the hour.

From there, they were able to see it out to set themselves up nicely for a clash with the All Blacks next weekend.

Italy made a blistering start, working their way up to the Georgian line only for Niniashvili to make his first crucial intervention of the match – racing up to intercept Alessandro Garbisi’s wide pass.

Gli Azzurri lost their skipper Michele Lamaro to injury in the same passage of play, Manuel Zuliani coming on to replace him.

The home side enjoyed much of the territory but were struggling to convert their chances, with Dino Lamb held up over the line by Luka Matkava.

Italy finally hit the front with a Paolo Garbisi penalty following a Georgian offside, but that seemed to spark the visitors into life.

With almost their first attacking opportunity, Georgia got over through their record try-scorer Tabutsadze.

It came after lovely interplay from Lobzhanidze and Ilia Spanderashvili before Matkava put in his wing for his 40th Test try.

Matt Gallagher missed a long-range chance to cut the gap, but Garbisi made no mistake soon after to make it 7-6.

That was immediately cancelled out by Matkava before a glorious second Georgian try. Collecting the ball in his own half, Niniashvili ghosted past three defenders before feeding Lobzhanidze for the simple finish. Matkava’s conversion made it 17-6.

Italy had one final chance at the end of the half, but Niniashvili popped up again to tackle Gallagher and then rip the ball when the fullback had found some space wide on the right.

Trailing by 11 points at the break, Italy started the second half with plenty of intent, but they struggled to break down the Georgian defence.

They were able to put pressure on the visitors, winning lots of penalties.

Finally that led to points, with Tabutsadze sent to the sin-bin and conceding a penalty try when he was pinged for an intentional knock-on as Monty Ioane looked set to go over in the corner.

Georgia defended stoutly while down a man but Fusco got over right at the end of the sin-bin period, bursting through off a well-worked line-out move. Garbisi converted and suddenly Italy were in the lead, 20-17 with less than a quarter of an hour remaining.

The second period had been played almost exclusively in Georgian territory and even two late line-outs around halfway went astray to deny the visitors a final chance to pull off the win.

The scorers

For Italy

Tries: Penalty try, Fusco

Cons: A penalty try does not require a conversion, Garbisi

Pens: Garbisi 2

For Georgia

Tries: Tabutsadze, Lobzhanidze

Cons: Matkava 2

Pen: Matkava

Yellow card: Aka Tabutsadze (Georgia, 53 - cynical foul, deliberate knock-on near his line)

Teams:

Italy: 15 Matt Gallagher, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Ross Vintcent, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dino Lamb, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti

Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Riccardo Favretto, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Giulio Bertaccini

Georgia: 15 Davit Niniashvili, 14 Aka Tabutsadze, 13 Giorgi Kveseladze, 12 Tornike Kakhoidze, 11 Alexander Todua, 10 Luka Matkava, 9 Vasil Lobzhanidze (captain), 8 Tornike Jalagonia, 7 Giorgi Tsutskiridze, 6 Illa Spanderashvili, 5 Giorgi Javakhia, 4 Giorgi Babunashvili, 3 Irakli Aptsiauri, 2 Vano Karkadze, 1 Nika Abuladze

Replacements: 16 Luka Nioradze, 17 Giorgi Akhaladze, 18 Luka Japaridze, 19 Lado Chachanidze, 20 Luka Ivanishvili, 21 Gela Aprasidze, 22 Tedo Abzhandadze, 23 Demur Tapladze

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand), Damian Schneider (Argentina)

TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)

* Additional reporting by @autumnnations