POOL C Australia 32 Italy 6:AUSTRALIA MADE a stuttering start but hit their formidable stride with four second-half tries to overcome Italy 32-6 in their opening World Cup match at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.
The Tri-Nations champions were held at 6-6 after a dour first half but scores from Ben Alexander, Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor and Digby Ioane saw them secure a bonus-point win in Pool C, which also includes Ireland, Russia and the United States.
Italy’s huge pack had severely tested the Wallabies in wet conditions in the first half, when the only scores came from two penalties apiece for Australia’s Quade Cooper and Italian winger Mirco Bergamasco, but a three-try blitz in 10 minutes soon after half-time ended any hopes of an upset.
“We were very pleased with the effort, we had to work very hard in the first half but we got the benefit of that in the second half,” said Australia coach Robbie Deans.
Australia have a habit of following big wins with poor displays and no victories come bigger than beating the All Blacks as they did two weeks ago to win a first Tri-Nations title since 2001.
Any complacency should have disappeared in the opening 10 minutes when, under a shower of rain, Cooper had to race into his own dead ball area to prevent Andrea Massi grounding a Luciano Orquera kick.
“We didn’t help ourselves in the first half, we were a little bit impatient in wanting that to come, we tried to force it,” Deans added.
“We overplayed our hand in the way that we attacked, I think we got the balance of our attack right in the second half.”
It was Anthony Faingaa who gave way when O’Connor came on seven minutes into the second half and within two minutes the winger had helped the Wallabies score their first try. O’Connor made an athletic attempt to dive across the line after a sweeping move but was stopped short and it was left to prop Alexander to wrestle himself over seconds later to break the deadlock.
Six minutes later, Cooper’s shimmy and delayed pass allowed centre Ashley-Cooper to charge through a huge gap in the Italian defence and double the try tally.
O’Connor added the third on 58 minutes, scything through the defence to score after Cooper spotted his late run on the inside and cleverly switched the ball to him.
The Aussies supporters had to wait just another nine minutes for the next try with winger Ioane taking the honours after coming off his wing to finish a clever set move off the back of an attacking scrum.
AUSTRALIA: Beale; Ashley-Cooper, Faingaa, McCabe, Ioane; Cooper, Genia; Kepu, Moore, Alexander; Vickerman, Horwill; Elsom, Pocock, Samo. Replacements: O'Connor for Faingaa (48 mins), McCalman for Pocock (60 mins), Burgess for Genia, Polota-Nau for Moore (both 62 mins), Slipper for Alexander (67 mins), Higginbotham for Elsom (70 mins).
ITALY: Masi; Benvenuti, Canale, Garcia, M Bergamasco; Orquera, Semenzato; Lo Cicero, Ghiraldini, Castrogiovanni; Del Fava, van Zyl; Zanni, Barbieri, Parisse. Replacements: Derbyshire for Barbieri (51 mins), Bortolami for Del Fava, McLean for Garcia (both 60 mins), Cittadini for Lo Cicero (69 mins), Gori for Semenzato (71 mins), Bocchino for Orquera (74 mins).
Referee: A Rolland(Ireland).
