Pumas race back to win in Rome

Todeschini sparks another Argentine comeback

Argentina staged a superb second-half comeback to claim a 23-16 victory over Italy in Rome on Saturday.

Have you heard of a monkeys' wedding? When the sun shines and the rain falls at the same time, that's a monkey's wedding. That's what we had in Rome on Saturday afternoon, but there was certainly not a bagful of tricks on the field in that tryless first half.

Oh there could have been a try but prop Marcos Ayerza knocked on, which was the only way that there would not be a try. Ayerza had a prodigal half as he gave away three penalties, one of which gave David Bortolussi a long goal-kick from his own half, which he goaled to give the Azzurri the lead.

In fact the Pumas were prodigal for they gave away ten penalties (to three) in that half.

It was a half of much kicking, a lot of it desultory.

When Alessandro Zanni was penalised at a tackle/tuck, Federico Todeschini, a hero at Twickenham the week before, goaled a penalty to open the scoring.

A bit of unsubtle barging in the line-out by young Estaban Lozada enabled Bortolussi to level the scores. penalised at a scrum - he was penalised twice at collapsed scrums - Ayerza enabled Bortolussi to put Italy ahead and then just on half time he gave his side a 9-3 lead with a 45-metre penalty when the Pumas captain of the day, Gonzalo Longo, tackled late.

Sin novedad! There was nothing notable to report, sir.

The second half was a bit better. After all, there were three tries - two long-range affairs by Argentina and a well-worked try by Italy.

Todeschini scored first in the second half when the Italian hooker Carlo Festuccia went off-side.

After that Italy looked promising, despite their erratic flyhalf Ramiro Pez who served Argentina well. (The little man comes from Córdoba in Argentina. (Isn't Fifth Columnist a Spanish concept?) There were promising breaks by Pablo Canavosio, Gonzalo Canale and Mirco Bergamasco. (The first two are also Argentinians which suggests that they really were trying to serve their adopted country well.)

But it was the Pumas who scored first. Their handling just inside their own half broke down but big Ignacio Corleto, playing on the right wing, grabbed the ball and raced down the touch-line, bursting inside through Marco Bortolami's tackle to feed Todeschini on his insiode, and the flyhalf scored a try which he converted.

The second try was also a break out as the ball went from industrious Horacio Agulla on the left wing to Miguel Avramovic and then to Martín Durand and back to Avramovic who was delighted to score. Again Todeschini converted. 20-9 to Argentina after 62 minutes.

Lots of substitutions happened about this time. One of them was flank Juan Manuel Leguizamon who went straight into action and straight out of it again. He was involved in a scuffle and seemed to be complaining about a finger in the eye but the referee had seen him interfering with the ball in the tackle and sent him, holding his right eye, to the sin bin.

From the second of two attacking line-outs, the Italians went rapidly right and replacement flyhalf Andrea Scanavacca played back inside to left wing Marko Stanojevic who cut clean through to score.

The appearance of Scanavacca at flyhalf made a vast difference to Italy's ability to run the ball.

Italy were running the ball because they were within a try of possible victory but Scanavacca was penalised for holding on in a tackle and Todeschini, ineluctably, lobbed the long kick over, and the final whistle went.

Man of the Match: It was not a match for heroes at all but Mirco Bergamasco and Paul Griffen did well for Italy while Horacio Agulla was busy for Argentina but our Man of the Match, despite two lost line-outs, was hooker Mario Ledesma.

Moment of the Match: There were three tries, but the breath-catching clean finish of Marko Stanojevic gets our nod.

Villain of the Match: Juan Manuel Leguizamon got the yellow card but if somebody really did set out to poke him in the eye, that would be the villain.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Try: Stanojevic
Con: Bortolussi
Pens: Bortolussi 3

For Argentina:
Tries: Todeschini, Avramovic
Cons: Todeschini
Pens: Todeschini 3

The teams:

Italy: 15 David Bortolussi, 14 Pablo Canavosio, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Marko Stanojevic, 10 Ramiro Pez, 9 Paul Griffen, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Carlos Nieto, 18 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Andrea Scanavacca, 22 Walter Pozzebon.

Argentina: 15 Juan Martin Hernández, 14 Ignacio Corleto, 13 Miguel Avramovic, 12 Manuel Contepomi, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, 8 Gonzalo Longo (captain), 7 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand. 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Martín Scelzo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Juan Gómez, 18 Jaime Arocena, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 20 Nicolás Vergallo, 21 Hernán Senillosa, 22 Pablo Gómez Cora

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Touch judges: Joël Jutge, Romain Poite (both France)
Television match official: Tim Hayes (Wales)