Sergio Parisse's greatest victories
As Italian great Sergio Parisse becomes the first player to reach 100 test defeats, we revisit some of his greatest victories.
ITALY v IRELAND 22-15, 2013
Italy went into their final Six Nations match of 2013 having never beaten Ireland during their time in the competition.
Ireland got off to a fast start, scoring a penalty in the fifth minute to take an early lead.
The Italians fought back in front of their home crowd, with the boots of Luciano Orquera and Gonzalo Garcia giving the Azzurri a slim 9-6 lead heading into the sheds.
Early after the break winger Giovanbattista Venditti scored the only try of the match to extend Italy’s lead to ten.
Captain Sergio Parisse saw yellow in the 51st minute, opening to door for an Irish comeback. Three Paddy Jackson penalties cut the Irish deficit to a single point with just 17 minutes remaining.
The Irish efforts wouldn’t be enough, as two more penalties from Orquera secured a famous Italian win.
Parisse was his usual industrious self, leading all players in run metres with 82 and making six tackles.
ITALY v ARGENTINA 30-29, 2005
Pierre Berbizier’s first win of his two-year tenure was certainly one to remember.
A big first-half showing from the visitors saw Italy take a 27-13 lead into the sheds.
Argentina scored first through Pablo Bouza, but Italy were quick to reply with flyhalf Ramiro Pez scoring a try just two minutes later.
Sergio Parisse scored Italy’s second try, and centre Gonzalo Canale picked up their third, all of which were converted by fullback Gert Peens.
To rub salt in the wound, all three of Italy’s tries were scored by Argentine-born players.
After halftime, the Pumas rallied to bring the score back to 27-26.
In the closing stages, Italy had to defend with just 13 men as locks Santiago Dellape (yellow) and Marco Bortolami (red) were sin-binned, but the Azzurri managed to hold on to secure a famous and rare away win in Cordoba.
ITALY v SCOTLAND 37-17, 2007
Another away win after a fast start, Italy scored three converted tries in the first six minutes to race out to a 21-0 lead against Scotland at Murrayfield in 2007.
Capitalising on Scottish mistakes, flanker Mauro Bergamasco charged down a kick to score the first try just 18 seconds in to the match. Five minutes later flyhalf Andrea Scanavacca and and winger Kaine Roberston were on the board after a pair of intercept tries.
The Scottish fought back through captain Chris Paterson and centre Rob Dewey, putting 17 points on the board.
Azzurri halfback Allesandro Troncon added another try and Scanavacca kicked three penalties to ensure Italy’s first ever Six Nations away win, by an impressive margin of 20 points nonetheless.
ITALY v SOUTH AFRICA 20-18, 2016
Arguably Italy’s most famous win – and their only win against a World Cup winning team – the Azzurri edged South Africa 20-18 in 2016.
It looked like business as usual when Bryan Habana crossed for the Springboks in the eighth minute.
Italy responded just three minutes later after pushing over the line from a rolling maul, with South African-born flanker and former club mate of Habana, Dries van Schalkwyk, picking up the score.
Springbok midfielder Damian de Allende scored the visitors’ second try after a 45-metre scamper down the right edge to regain the lead, and an Italian penalty from the boot of fullback Edoardo Padovani made for a 10-12 score line in favour of South Africa at the break.
A Pat Lambie penalty shortly after halftime pushed South Africa’s lead to five points, setting up a tense final third that contained three lead changes.
A two-on-one overlap saw Giovanbattista Venditti score Italy’s second try with 25 minutes remaining to give the home side a two-point advantage, before replacement flyhalf Elton Jantjies edged South Africa back in front with a penalty.
Carlo Canna finished the scoring, slotting a penalty to give Italy their final lead of the game in the 64th minute.
Italy held on tight for the final 15 before Tommaso Allen booted the ball into the stands to give his side a famous victory over Allister Coetzee’s Springboks.
Comments on RugbyPass
Also, looking at the data from last year, it seemed like by far the two biggest predictors of success were (1) kicking more than your opponents, and (2) having a higher rate of line-out wins than your opponents. I haven’t gone through the stats this year with a fine tooth comb, but the increase in kicks per game and the increase in tries from lineouts would suggest that these two metrics are only getting more important. England’s move away from a kick-heavy game to win against Ireland was seen by some as evidence that running rugby is on the rise. Alternatively it could be taken as evidence that if one team kicks more, and the other team wins more lineouts (as England did) a match is bound to be close to a draw.
2 Go to commentsI have been finding it odd that points per 22 entry has become such a talked about stat, given that your points per entry can be driven down by having more entries. These data would seem to confirm that it isn’t a useful metric, or at any rate is less useful than total entries.
2 Go to commentsI think the last two games England have played is some of their best rugby they have played under Borthwick. There has been a lot more attacking instinct and as a reward have created some well worked tries. Ollie Lawrence is a good foil at 12 as he offers the hard direct lines whilst the rest of the backs can play open. As much as it pains me to say but I do hope England keep playing this way. On a side note my favourite try of the weekend was Lorenzo Pani’s for the nice loop play that put him away and his finish was excellent. Thanks as always Nick.
39 Go to commentsMost exciting player on the planet right now, worth the price of a ticket.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith and Ireland live rent free in Safa’s heads. Their comments only triggers because its true. If the Boks had dismantled a 14 man AB’s, then there would be more respect. But they didnt, in fact quite the opposite, the 14 man NZ were clearly better. And the Bok have always been ordinary between RWC’s, thats why their supporters are now ‘only RWC’s matter’. They know thats BS. Its BS to both AB’s and Bok’s due to their history. But now its all the Safas have. Now we’ll hear excuses when they lose “oh we didnt have all our players available, the ABs/France/Eng/Irel were at full strength”, forgetting for a minute that its because of their own dumb policy. Oh well, makes a change from blaming ‘cheating refs’.
23 Go to commentsNo Nick, they did not, in fact, justify any ‘probables’ label. At no time did they seriously compete for the championship. Ireland led from start to finish and in the end, as a result of glaring referee errors, were never under serious pressure to lose their crown.
39 Go to commentsMoney for him, and his family, has been the sole motivator since he signed for Queensland aged 17. Why else sign for Melbourne. Tupou is poorly advised. If he’d stayed and developed in NZ he would have had a long Test career. If Leinster offer him a few more coins than he’s currently earning, he’s goneburger.
4 Go to commentsFinn. No one would say Ford had played well up until the last game. One standout performance in 5 is hardly in form . It should be a given that a 10 will control play . Not in Fords case be praised for suddenly doing so. Where was he against Scotland ,Italy. The pundits were saying how far away from play he was standing and one even said that the Ireland game was his last chance saloon to perform . Not exactly top form catching anyones eye. If he can play like this game after game then great. Keep him in . But after 90 odd caps we all know he just doesnt keep it going . By all means keep him there but the issue is that Borthwick will persist even when he plays poorly. Which is more often than not. Thats why i am concerned that Smith ,despite fab form , cannot get a game at his preferred spot. Can you imagine Ford at full back .
5 Go to commentsI do not really get why put Ollivon at 6 when he’s a 7, while Cros was the best Frenchman of the tournament, playing at…6. His only game replacing Aldritt at 8 doesn’t change much in terms of his impact. Lamaro was also outstanding in that brilliant Italian side, probably better than Reffell. So putting 2 Welsh players from the wooden spoon holders, and none of the 4th nation (Scotland) is also strange. Is it about showing that in this harsh transition Wales is, there were some standouts…?
6 Go to commentsThe events at this year’s six nations should undermine many of the arguments made against promotion and relegation between the six nations and the REC. If Italy had been allowed to yo-yo between divisions it conceivably could have really hurt their development, but if Italy, Wales, and Scotland are all at risk of relegation, with none of them being relegated more often than once every 3 or 4 years, you’d have to back all of them to muddle on through it, especially when you factor in the likelihood they’ll still be guaranteed world league matches against tier 1 opponents. Another way of looking at italys resurgence would be to say that the development model of adding an extra team to the six nations has worked, and now must be done again. Georgia could join to make it a 7 team round robin, and if and when Georgia demonstrate an ability to consistently win games, Portugal can also be added to make it an 8 team 2 conference competition. Frankly at this point I think it falls to world rugby to demand that the 6N act in the interests of the game. If the 6N won’t commit to expansion then the 6N teams should be handicapped in world cup draws (i.e. world cup seedings would not be based on their ranking points, but on their ranking points minus a 5 point penalty).
6 Go to commentsSteve Borthwick deserves credit for releasing the shackles on his England side and letting them play in a manner that somewhat resembles the top sides in the Gallagher Premiership. Will they revert to type in New Zealand in July.?
39 Go to commentsJames Lowe wouldn't get in any other 6N team. He's a great example of Farrell’s brilliance, and the Irish system. He is slow. His footwork is poor. But he fits perfectly in that Irish system, and has a superb impact. But put him in another team, and he'll look bang average.
6 Go to commentsCrusaders reached their heights through recruitment of North Island players, often leaving those NI teams bereft of key players. Example: Scott Barrett and Sam Whitelock robbed the Canes of their lineout and AB locks. For years the Canes have struggled at lock. This rabid recruitment was iniated by rule changes by a Crusader dominated NZR Head Office. Now this aggressive recruitment has back-fired, going after young inside back Hamilton Boys stars. They now have 4 Chiefs region 10s and not one with the requisite experience at Super level. Problems of their own making!
2 Go to commentsOver rated for a long time…exposed at scrum time too.
4 Go to comments“Firing me” should have been Gatland’s answer.
2 Go to commentsFinn Russell logic: “World” = 4 countries. Ireland may be at or near the top. FR’s bigger concern should be he and his fellow Scots (incl. the Bloemfontein ones) sliding back down to below top 10
42 Go to commentsMind games have begun. Ireland learned their lesson after saying they could beat England with 13 players or whatever. Still, if they win at Loftus, that would be impressive - final frontier etc.
58 Go to comments$950k for a Prop that isn’t fit enough to play 10 mins of rugby? Surely there is someone better to replace Big Mike with
4 Go to commentsFour Kiwis in that backline. A solid statement on the lack of invention, risk-taking and joy in the NH game; game of attrition and head- banging tedium. Longterm medical problems aplenty in the future!
6 Go to commentsGood article, I learnt quite a lot. A big sliding door moment was in the mid 00s when they rejected Steve Anderson's long term transformation and he wrote Ireland's strategy instead.
2 Go to comments