Italy A just beat Georgia
Italy A beat the much weakened Georgia team 8-7 at Stadio Bruseschi in Palmanova, near Udine, on Friday night.
Georgia were without eight of their first-choice players, the men who were in the side to beat the Argentina Jaguars in Tblissi the week before.
This is Italy A's second win on successive weekends. The week before they beat Romania 33-6. The Lelos were the only ones to score in the first half when scrumhalf Bidzina Samkharadze went over for a try which Lasha Khmaladze converted.
early in the second half Riccardo Bocchino kicked a penalty goal and midway through the half fullback Paolo Buso capitalised on hesitation in the Georgian defence and scored a try. For the remaining 17 minutes there was no score. Italy A have a lot to thank Valerio Bernabò and his pack for.
Afterwards Italy A's coach, Gianluca Guidi, said: “We didn't play as well as we did against Romania but I cannot but be proud of the players who this year have beaten Romania twice, Russia and this evening Georgia."
Guidi praised the work being done in developing young players in Italy.
Scorers:
For Italy A:
Try: Buso
Pen: Bocchino
For Georgia:
Try: Samkharadze
Pen: Khmaladze
Teams:
Italy A: 15 Paolo Buso, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Andrea Pratichetti, 11 Michele Sepe, 10 Riccardo Bocchino, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Paul Derbyshire, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Valerio Bernabò (captain), 4 Tommaso Reato, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Davide Giazzon, 1 Michele Rizzo
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice, 17 Massimiliano Ravalle, 18 Plinio Sciamanna, 19 Manyvydas Tveraga, 20 Agustín Cavalieri, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Enrico Patrizio
Coach: Gianluca Guidi
Georgia: 15 Lasha Khmaladze, 14 Alexander Todua, 13 David Kacharava, 12 Revaz Gigauri, 11 Irakli Machkhaneli, 10 Lasha Malaguradze, 9 Bidzina Samkharadze, 8 Dimitri Basil, 7 Giorgi Chkhaidze, 6 Rati Urushadze, 5 Giorgi Nemsadze, 4 Ilia Zedginidze, 3 Vasil Kakovin, 2 Irakli Natriashvili, 1 David Khinchagishvili,
Replacements: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 David Kubriashvili, 18 Viktor Kolelishvili, 19 Simon Maisuradze, 20 Irakli Abuseridze, 21 Merab Kvirikashvili, 22 Irakli Chkhikvadze
Coaches: Tim Lane, Johnny Ngauamo, Ilia Maisuradze
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)