Argentina get the better of Italy in Verona

Argentina beat Italy for the fifth successive time in Italy as they won 22-16 at the Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi on Saturday. Felipe Contepomi kicked five penalties for the Pumas while fullback Martin Rodriguez scored a nice try.

Mirco Bergamasco kicked three penalties to add to the a converted penalty try for Italy but they failed to challenge the Pumas line in front of their home crowd. They will host Australia this weekend, while Argentina head to France.

Contepomi, named as Man of the match, said the game was as tough as they’d expected. “We knew it would be a very difficult game against Italy, history tells us it's never been easy for us here," he said. "For us the important thing is the result and to come here and win."

Italy's South African coach Nick Mallett was disappointed with the result.

"Maybe we had more of the ball than Argentina, we had a lot of possession, the backs touched the ball a lot but having possession and creating holes in the defence are different things," he said. "We need to work on our backs' play to create situations to score tries and this is work for everyone, not just the backs," he added.

Captain Sergio Parisse blamed himself for not taking the two chances he had.

"It's a tough moment we feel really bad and I have to take responsibility. I had two chances. At this level you have to take your chances but I didn't and if I had the result could have been different," he said.

They’ve suffered another blow as flyhalf and former Australia rugby league international Craig Gower will miss playing against his country of birth as he’s out with a knee injury.


'Big hits are the name of the game this weekend' - Rugbydump blog in the Telegraph
Have a read through my latest blog on the Telegraph website. It includes a wrap-up and links to all the weekend's big games, a few thoughts about upcoming games, as well as a few other interesting bits. Read more here

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