Italy's 39-22 defeat by Argentina in Genoa on Saturday will have left many Italian fans wondering what progress has been made since Pierre Berbizier replaced John Kirwan as coach in April.

The defeat, coming on the back of last weekend's 48-0 demolition of Tonga, will lead some to draw parallels with results 12 months ago when the Azzurri crushed Canada 51-6 in their opening November Test before suffering a succession of losses that ended in Kirwan's sacking five months later.

Victory over Tonga, like that over Canada, the team's critics will claim, was a false dawn.

While Italy clearly remain a rung below their Six Nations rivals, however, the game in Genoa did produce evidence of improvement. The best news for Berbizier was the performance of outhalf Ramiro Pez, who seems to have ended Italy's long-running search for a reliable kicker.

One of the features of Italy's poor Six Nations campaign this year was their inability to transform penalties into points.

On Saturday, Pez was faultless with the boot, sending over a conversion and five penalties, one from inside his half.

Italy also showed flashes of the lively backline play they used to run seven tries past Tonga. Gonzalo Canale grabbed their only try of the match after a neat one-two with fellow centre Cristian Stoica.

On the negative side was the lapse in concentration that allowed Argentina to run in two tries in quick succession when the score was 22-all on the hour mark and effectively end what had till then been a close contest.

Berbizier admitted his side would need to play better to beat Fiji in Monza next Saturday.

The Fijians are ranked 10th in the world, one place above Italy.

"It was like an Argentine tango: one step forward and two steps back," Berbizier was quoted in La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"The main difference between the two sides was their ability to win possession and our tendency to lose it because we always tried to beat the adversary individually, not collectively.

"It was a good lesson, but we will only improve if we pay attention to it."

Former Italy outhalf Diego Dominguez warned that Fiji, like Argentina, would take advantage of any defensive weaknesses.

"At 22-22 the match seemed wide open, and then those two errors finished it off," he said.

"They will need to improve against Fiji. The Fijians are born attackers - physically strong and better-organised than the Tongans."

Romania, who visit Dublin next week, were the beneficiaries of a late try from Alexandru Manta to beat Canada 22-20 in Bucharest, while Fiji beat the quickly improving Portuguese by 26-17 in Lisbon.