Match Preview: Wallabies vs Italy

[James]

It has not been a good week. A woeful performance against England was followed up by a woeful performance against a depleted Munster side. No matter how well we play against Italy it won’t fill that hole burning deep inside since the England game. Chances are that Saturday’s game will only make things worse. Australia doesn’t have a history of playing well against Italy, particularly not in Italy. Two years ago in Padua, the Wallabies scraped home to a 30-20 victory after some Quade Cooper razzle-dazzle (joyfully assisted by Stirling Mortlock) after being tied 20-20 coming into the 70th minute. Two years before that we won by just 7 (25-18) in Rome in a particularly uninspiring game. While we have never lost to Italy in test rugby, it has been a long time since we’ve really ‘won’.

It’s time for the Wallabies to put in a dominant performance against Italy and blow them off the park from the get go. This is a job that won’t be made any easier by last weekend’s game where England exposed the Wallabies’ frailties for all to see. Italy will be looking forward to this one and will actually be pretty confident that they can upset the Wallabies. No doubt we can expect the same treatment from Italy and it will be a bit of a sign of whether last weekend was a one off and how much we’ve learnt from it.

The two teams share a World Cup pool and any psychological victory that Italy can take into next year they will fight hard for.

How are they travelling?

Wallabies: Shitty. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall in the game against Wales as our scrum was pulverised and we were beaten at the breakdown. But after a ‘streak’ of two wins away from home, we’ve only gone and fallen off the wagon again. Very few positives could be taken out of last weekend’s game except for a few strong individual performances. The only big positive is that they really can’t play much worse. Or can they?

As for Italy, they are slowly working their way up. The addition of players like Craig Gower (although he won’t be playing on Saturday) and Luke McLean from Australia add a bit more mystique in attack, which is definitely something that Italy have lacked in the years passed. Last weekend Italy came close against Argentina, eventually losing 16-22. While the Argies aren’t at the same level they were at in 2007, they are not to be underestimated. This year’s Six Nations was pretty typical for Italy finishing with a solitary win over Scotland. They came exceedingly close to upsetting England in the tournament, however.

How are they going to win it?

Australia will win this one if they take Italy seriously and put in the hard yards. This is definitely not a game Australia should lose, but they know it and they will be prone to being lazy. Regrettably, the mid-weekers played poorly in Limerick and the threat of losing Test spots isn’t that strong at the moment. Italy are a fairly one-dimensional side and all Australia need to do to win this one is to be accurate in defence and keep up the discipline. If they can pull that off, Italy won’t be able to touch them. Somehow I rather expect to see lazy tackling, lazy discipline and lazy individual efforts with low percentage passes.

Italy come into this match with a carefully mapped blue-print for beating Australia. Be enthusiastic, get the forwards to work as a pack, run players at Quade Cooper all night, and kick over penalties as the Australian players transgress, lazily.

The players who will make the difference...

Well team sheets aren’t up at the moment so it is pretty hard to say. You’d imagine from Italy that Martin Castrogiovanni and Salvatore Perugini will anchor each side of a powerful front row. This will be the one area that Italy will have a clear dominance. The stout, aggressive, passionate pair will give the Ben(n)s trouble all night and will hope to get the same kind of reward as Wales did a fortnight ago. Sergio Parisse deserves a notable mention as Italy’s only other world standard player. I imagine that he is very much looking forward to running the ball at Cooper off the back of a dominant scrum.

For Australia this comes down to Cooper and Elsom. Cooper just needs to make his tackles. Not much more needs to be said on that. If he makes most of them, we win. Enough said. As for Elsom, I thought he played fairly well last weekend but I am not convinced he captained well. Against Italy his leadership will really be on show; can he inspire his team to make mincemeat out of the Italians? Because anything less will be a disappointment. Before the test against England last weekend I saw Lewis Moody charged up and breathing a bit of fire into the team and I thought jeez this is definitely not going to be an easy test. You could feel the determination just sitting on a couch watching TV on the other side of the world. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Elsom do that and if he can’t, it’s time to think about change.

The Outcome

It’s going to be dour. You are going to wish you hadn’t stayed up late or got up early to watch it. It isn’t going to come close filling the disappointment from last weekend. If your television had feelings, they would be well and truly hurt by the things you will be yelling at it. But at least the Wallabies will win. Wallabies by 12 with a last minute try to round off a lazy win.

Teams:
Italy: TBA
Squad:
Forwards: Robert Barbieri, Mauro Bergamasco, Martin Castrogiovanni, Lorenzo Cittadini, Carlo Antonio Del Fava, Santiago Dellape, Paul Derbyshire, Quintin Geldenhuys, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Andrea Lo Cicero, Fabio Ongaro, Sergio Parisse (capt), Salvatore Perugini, Alessandro Zanni

Backs: Tommaso Benvenuti, Mirco Bergamasco, Riccardo Bocchino, Gonzalo Canale, Pablo Canavosio, Edoardo Gori, Andrea Masi, Luke McLean, Luciano Orquera, Alberto Sgarbi

Australia:
1. James Slipper (Queensland Reds)
2. Stephen Moore (Brumbies)
3. Ben Alexander (Brumbies)
4. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds)
5. Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
6. Rocky Elsom (c) (Brumbies)
7. David Pocock (Western Force)
8. Ben McCalman (Western Force)
9. Luke Burgess (NSW Waratahs)
10. Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds)
11. Drew Mitchell (NSW Waratahs)
12. Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs)
13. Adam Ashley-Cooper (Brumbies)
14. Lachie Turner (NSW Waratahs)
15. Kurtley Beale (NSW Waratahs)

Reserves:
16. Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Waratahs)
17. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs)
18. Mark Chisholm (Brumbies)
19. Matt Hodgson (Western Force)
20. Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
21. Matt Giteau (Brumbies)
22. Pat McCabe (Brumbies)

Referee: Christophe Berdos (Fra)

[Darren]

Rod Davies, Saia Faingaa, Peter Hynes, Luke Morahan and Van Humphries won't be on the team sheet - they are all on their way back home as we speak ...

You'd hope the Wallabies would romp it in by 20 or more on the back of the last 2 games just to prove a point...

[James]

Yeah, sorry to be a pessimist. I just have a feeling.

Interesting that its 5 Reds being sent back.

---------- Post added at 22:22 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

I like that Simmons is being given a run. Bit fed up with Chisholm.

[travelling_gerry]

Outside centre Adam Ashley-Cooper will make his 50th Test appearance when he takes to Florence’s Stadio Artemio Franchi for the Qantas Wallabies’ Test match against Italy on Saturday (Sunday morning AEDT).

Ashley-Cooper will become the 35th Australian player to reach 50 Tests and the fifth to do so in 2010. The Brumbies utility back follows in the footsteps of teammates Rocky Elsom (v Fiji in Canberra), Mark Chisholm (v England in Sydney), and Stephen Moore and Drew Mitchell (v South Africa in Bloemfontein) who have also registered their half centuries this year.

Ashley-Cooper will start in a Qantas Wallabies side featuring five changes to their starting XV following last weekend’s 35-18 loss to England at Twickenham.

The Australian backline has received the bulk of the modifications, featuring three of the side’s changes. After starting from the bench in the Qantas Wallabies’ past three Tests, Lachie Turner, who scored his maiden Test try against the Azzurri in the corresponding match two years ago, has been promoted to the run-on side following winger James O’Connor’s return to Australia on compassionate grounds. Saturday will be the 13th Test of Turner’s career but just his second this year after winning the team’s internal man-of-the-match award when deputising for an injured Drew Mitchell in his only other outing against New Zealand in Sydney.

O’Connor will re-join the side in Paris on Sunday.

Berrick Barnes, who captained the Qantas Wallabies in both midweek tour matches against Leicester and Munster, will start a Test for the first time since the Qantas Wallabies’ 49-28 loss to the All Blacks in Melbourne in July. The Australian inside centre plays his ninth Test of the year but just his third start, and the third of his career partnering flyhalf Quade Cooper. The other two occurred last year against Italy in Melbourne (when Barnes started at flyhalf and Cooper at inside centre) and earlier this year in Perth against England after Matt Giteau was forced out at the side’s Captain’s Run with Barnes fulfilling the role in the Qantas Wallabies’ ‘12’ jersey.

Luke Burgess has been selected at scrumhalf replacing Will Genia, who will take up his place on the reserves list after recovering from rib damage sustained against England last weekend. Burgess gets his first start since the side’s win over Ireland in Brisbane in June where he scored his maiden Test try.

Changes to the Qantas Wallabies’ forward pack will see the Queensland Reds pairing of loosehead prop James Slipper and lock Rob Simmons make their run-on debuts for the Australian side. Slipper, a former Australian Under 20 Player of the Year, receives his call-up to the starting front row after 12 caps off the bench, in what will be just the second starting appearance of his professional carerer – the first being for the Reds in their final Super 14 match of the season against the Highlanders. Slipper has featured in each of the Qantas Wallabies’ past 12 Tests since having made his debut against England in Perth, with captain Rocky Elsom, David Pocock and Dean Mumm the only other forwards who have appeared consecutively in each of those games. Simmons, who made his Test debut in the Qantas Wallabies’ win over South Africa in Brisbane this year, earns a start in his fifth Test and will pack down alongside Nathan Sharpe.

Elsom, who will continue his back row partnership with David Pocock and Ben McCalman for a sixth consecutive Test, will lead the Qantas Wallabies for the 19th time. This equals Andrew Slack as the fifth most capped Australian leader behind George Gregan, John Eales, Nick Farr-Jones and Stirling Mortlock.

Deans says Ashley-Cooper’s milestone is a tremendous accomplishment.

“It’s outstanding,” he said. “To get one Test is a great but to get to 50 is an outstanding achievement in anyone’s book.

“The great thing about Adam is that he’s played each of those as if they were his first.”

Deans says the changes represent the current competition for places within the Qantas Wallabies squad.

“They’ve all earned their right to be a part of this side,” he said. “Off the back of his efforts off the bench, James [Slipper] has earned his opportunity to start and Rob gets his chance to start having got some more rugby under his belt [against Leicester and Munster] and he’ll benefit from the experience he received off the bench through the Tri-Nations.

“Berrick has really worked hard at his game and deserves his chance to start. He has also made an impact off the bench for us and he gets his chance to start from the beginning, as does Luke [Burgess]. Will Genia is coming off a knock from last week and so he [Burgess] gets his chance to do some yards in place of him.

“Lachie obviously comes in due to James O’Connor’s absence, but we expect him to thrive as he has done with each opportunity he’s been provided with in the past.”

The Qantas Wallabies bench is highlighted by the return of hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, who returns to the Qantas Wallabies’ Test side for the first since undergoing ankle surgery in June and can potentially feature in his first Test since defeating Wales in Cardiff at the end of last year. He played in 13 of our 14 Tests last year but will be featuring in his first for 2010.

Reserve outside back Pat McCabe is in line to make his Test debut after two powerful performances against Leicester and Munster, having earned his selection on the tour as the only player to play every minute of every match for their side in this year’s Super 14 competition.

Another player to capitalise on two excellent performances from the midweek fixtures is flanker Matt Hodgson, who is in line to add to his four Test caps after being called into the Qantas Wallabies 22-man squad. If required, it would be Hodgson’s first Test cap since Australia’s match against New Zealand in Christchurch in August.

The changes within the starting line-up has resulted in a revamped run-on reserves list with Benn Robinson, Mark Chisholm, Genia and Giteau reverting to the bench after starting against England at Twickenham last weekend.


Qantas Wallabies v Italy
Saturday, 20 November, 2010
Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
Time: 3pm (local)/1am (AEDT) (Sunday, 21 November)
Referee: Christophe Berdos (Fra)

Australia:
1. James Slipper (Queensland Reds)
2. Stephen Moore (Brumbies)
3. Ben Alexander (Brumbies)
4. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds)
5. Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
6. Rocky Elsom (c) (Brumbies)
7. David Pocock (Western Force)
8. Ben McCalman (Western Force)
9. Luke Burgess (NSW Waratahs)
10. Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds)
11. Drew Mitchell (NSW Waratahs)
12. Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs)
13. Adam Ashley-Cooper (Brumbies)
14. Lachie Turner (NSW Waratahs)
15. Kurtley Beale (NSW Waratahs)

Reserves:
16. Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Waratahs)
17. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs)
18. Mark Chisholm (Brumbies)
19. Matt Hodgson (Western Force)
20. Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
21. Matt Giteau (Brumbies)
22. Pat McCabe (Brumbies)

ARU

[fulvio sammut]

Porca miseria, James, sei Italiano anche tu?

[James]

No, I'm not Italian. But last week has left me a bit miserable and I don't want to get my hopes up

[Hoolly Doolly]

Mcalman and elsom need to really step it up.
Cooper goes without saying.
About time gits was relegated.
Robinson hasnt been that great since hes returned from injury.
Hopefully its the last weve seen of dean mumm.
Never been a fan of turner but he's won me over with his defense and high work rate.

[joblot]

I sincerely hope that Giteau's being dropped to the bench gives him the push he needs to get back his old magic form, which, IMHO, he has not shown since he left the mighty Force.

[Tazzmania]

I sincerely hope that Giteau's being dropped to the bench gives him the push he needs to get back his old magic form, which, IMHO, he has not shown since he left the mighty Force.

Very intresting comment, and one I agree with. For some reason at The Force, Gits stood up week in and week out in one of the "weaker" Super 14 (sorry to say it but we were) and made a HUGE DIFFERENCE, in a pereceived weaker of the top rugby international teams with little depth you would think he woukld have a similar impact. He just does not seem to be happy and enjoying himself, started about the time I reckon he was finalising his move back to Canberra. Has he lost his mojo or is that what Canberra can do to you.

Time for move back West kid, so we can get that Dynamite going again.

[Hoolly Doolly]

Toomua and and lealifano are on the up at the Brumbies...........

[zimeric]

somehow i doubt he would get a very good welcome....

i also however think that the benching is a strategic move rather than based on form.

[GIGS20]

I sincerely hope that Giteau's being dropped to the bench gives him the push he needs to get back his old magic form, which, IMHO, he has not shown since he left the mighty Force.

somehow i doubt he would get a very good welcome....

i also however think that the benching is a strategic move rather than based on form.

Yeah, that's my concern as well Zim, if he sees it as a rest rather than a drop it won't mean jack to him.

Although the Seven morning show had a big headline about him being dropped, so maybe the media can do the job deansey doesn't have the stones for.

If you were going to drop him, this would be the test to do it. Berrick shoul dbe able to handle the italians without Gower and you could make a big public fanfare about it, completely stage managed to get his precious little nose out of joint and fire the lazy bastard up again.

[BeeJay]

I'm not sure if Gits demotion to the bench is so much a message for him as for Cooper - if he falls off any more tackles, Gits could be on before halftime.

Slipper and Simmons deserve their starts even if its probably a week too late - they have really impressed with every opportunity they have had - in tests or midweek games. Likewise Hodgson - as always playing his heart out in the midweek games, and fully deserving of his bench spot.

If Genia is injured he should be out of the 22 - a real slap in the face for Phipps, who, to be honest, hasn't really been given a chance to impress.