Changed Italy win in George

The Italy Under-19 side which beat the South Western Districts XV 38-21 at Outeniqua Park in George was unrecognisable from the side beaten 45-12 in Cape Town by a Western Province XV on Friday.

This was despite the fact that the South Western Districts team was on paper at least a much stronger side than the Western Province XV which had few players who were at the 2014 Craven Week.

The Italian pack dominated the first half and they led 27-0 at half time and 30-0 early in the second half. Their tries were all scored by forwards. But when in the second half the South Western Districts side was bolstered by stronger players the game changed and 30-0 became 30-21. But another penalty and a try with time up made the win look more comfortable than it really was in the second half.

The South Western Districts side was further bedevilled by many penalties in a match of penalties. They score no points from penalties while Italy scored 12.

The first South Western Districts try came when Italy knocked on straight to JP Duvenhage and the big Outeniqua centre who played in the South Western Districts Academy Week side raced more than half the length of the field to score under the posts.

Their second try was a beauty. They created space for Shadward Fillies, now on the left wing and he went racing, swerving and stepping to score under the posts.

Their third try came when Ruan Barnard was boxed in on the right and kicked a crosskick infield which flank Levuju Ndevu gathered and ran 30 metres or so to score.

The South Western Districts tries came from far off while Italy scored from close quarters.

Scorers:

For Italy:

Tries: Giovanni Amendola, Marco Dallavalle 2, Jake Polledri

Cons: Francesco Failla 3

Pens Jake Polledri, Francesco Failla 3

For South Western Districts:

Tries: JP Duvenhage, Shadward Fillies, Levuju Ndevu

Cons: Boeta Hamman 3

Teams

South Western Districts XV: 15 Dominic Smith, 14 Corné de Klerk, 13 JP Duvenhage, 12 Shadward Fillies, 11 Clayton Kiewiets, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Niven Langdown, 8 Nevada Jacobs, 7 Levuju Ndevu, 6 Neil Otto, 5 Anton Smit (captain), 4 André Smith,  3 Roux Swart, 2 Vogien Talmaggies, 1 Andrew Kuhn.

Replacements: 16 Cian Wagenaar, 17 Wynand de Necker, 18 SW Odendaal, 19 St Swanepoel, 20 Armand Heunis, 21 Ruan Barnard, 22 Boeta Hamman

Coach: Stefan Joubert.

NB The numbers here are to indicate positions. They are not the numbers used on the day, which bore no relation to the position the players were in.

The captain, Christopher Roelofse, was a late withdrawal, replaced on the flank by Neil Otto of Outeniqua.

Italy Under-19: 15 Francesco Failla, 14 Giovanni Pettinelli (captain), 13 Marcello Angelini, 12 Matteo Ferrari, 11 Federico Cicuttin, 10 Edward Reeves, 9 Lorenzo Masato, 8 Marco Dallavalle, 7 Emilio Vezzoli, 6 Gustavo Mozzato, 5 Ugo D’Onofrio, 4 Massimiliano Chiappini, 3 Antonio Barducci, 2 Giovanni Amendola, 1 Dino Dallavalle

Replacements: 16 Alessandro Florio, 17 Alessandro Casini, 18 HJ Luus (Paarl Gimnasium), 19 Nicolò Broglia, 20 Dario Basha, 21 Jake Polledri, 22 Riccardo Raffaele, 23 Filippo Banzato, 24 Luca Della Vecchia, 25 Daniele Grosso

Coach: Roland De Marigny

Referee: Arnaud Blondell (France)