New Zealand 27 Italy 6
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Italy put in a spirited performance but did not have the firepower to threaten the All Blacks who won 27-6. The All Blacks were far from convincing and were saved by the performance of Isaac Ross who inspired the team in the second half to get the All Blacks over the line.
The All Blacks experiment with Luke McAllister appears to have failed with the All Blacks attacking moves falling down on a number of occasions. The Tri-Nations opener is likely to reveal a new combination and the All Blacks will need to work hard in the next few weeks.
Pacific Islands 25 defeat Italy 17
The Pacific Islands claimed their first victory against Italy 25-17 scoring three tries to two in a hard fought victory.
The Pacific Islands team started well scoring two tries with provided the foundation for victory.
Wallabies 30 defeat Italy 20
The winning score by the Wallabies looks far more convincing than the actual win for Australia who won 30-20 against an Italian side that were unlucky to lose.
The Nick Mallett inspired Italy side were at times the clearly better side but lack of polish and brilliance of Wallabies rookie Quade Cooper got Australia over the line.
With scores locked at 20-20 with 10 minutes remaining Quade Cooper made an evasive 30metre run to beat four Italians to score. Cooper’s try clinched victory for an unconvincing Wallabies.
Deans will not take away any positives from the encounter and has lost his star Berrick Barnes for the rest of the tour and Timana Tahu who played well to a hamstring injury.
On a positive note Ben Alexander in the front row had a promising first run on test appearance and Matt Giteau was perfect with his kicking.
The Wallabies have lots to do to defeat England this weekend.
Meanwhile Mallett will be disappointed the Italian side could not qin the match but will be proud of their efforts.
Checkout the video highlights below from Fox Sports.
Italian Squad revealed
Nick Mallett announced his Italian squad to play Australia, Argentina and the Pacific Islands in November. Mallett selected a 30-man tean and will take them into training in Rome between 19-21 October.
Italy will play Australia at on 8th November, Argentina on 15th November and the Pacific Islands on 22nd November.
The Italian squad is;
Forwards:
Matias Aguero (Saracens)
Robert Barbieri (Treviso)
Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais)
Marco Bortolami (Gloucester)
Carlo Antonio Del Fava (Ulster)
Santiago Dellape (Toulon)
Carlo Festuccia (Racing Metro)
Leonardo Ghiraldini (Calvisano)
Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro)
Carlos Nieto (Gloucester)
Fabio Ongaro (Saracens)
Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais)
Salvatore Perugini (Toulouse)
Tommaso Reato (Rovigo)
Josh Sole (Viadana)
Alessandro Zanni (Calvisano)
Backs:
Andrea Bacchetti (Rovigo)
Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais)
Gonzalo Canale (Clermont)
Pablo Canavosio (Viadana)
Gonzalo Garcia (Calvisano)
Marcato (Treviso)
Andrea Masi (Biarritz)
Luke McLean (Calvisano)
Luciano Orquera (Brive)
Riccardo Pavan (Parma)
Simon Picone (Treviso)
Matteo Pratichetti (Calvisano)
Kaine Robertson (Viadana)
Giulio Toniolatti (Capitolina Rome)
IRB Awards - Top 5 Rugby Stars of 2008
The International Rugby Board (IRB) player of the year award will be awarded on 23 November where five players will all compete for the biggest honour in the game.
Four players from the northern and one from the southern hemisphere were shortlisted by the panel after watching almost 50 hours of rugby and 35 tests.
The shortlisted players were Dan Carter (New Zealand), Shane Williams and Ryan Jones (Wales), Mike Blair (Scotland) and Sergio Parisse (Italy).
THe players stood out after the panel went through each match and selected the three best players from each match. The panel consists of Tana Umaga, Raphael Ibanez, Will Greenwood, Francois Pienaar, Agustin Pichot, Gavin Hastings, Scott Quinnell, Paul Wallace and is chaired by John Eales.
If Dan Carter was to win he would be the first player to win two IRB player of the year awards.
Who do you think was the best player of the year?
Could Rugby have a World Series?
Reports from the Daily Mail in the UK have claimed the IRB are looking at organsing a Rugby World Series that would occur every two years.
The World Series would start as a round robin as part of the Six Nations and the current Tri-Nations teams including Argentina with results counting towards the World Series. Tests between the hemisphere’s rugby teams would continue to take place between June and November.
The top two teams would play-off every two years, most likely at the new Wembley Stadium in front of 90,000 people where the winner could take over in excess of AUD $20 million.
Chances are any plans of getting this up and running before the next World Cup would be unlikely but if the IRB can get all the Union’s on board then it could start by 2010.
Italy announce Squad
The Italian coach Nick Mallett has announced his 29-man squad to for the upcoming three tests in November.
Italy will play Australia on 8th November, Argentina a week later, then the Pacific Islands on 22nd November.
The Italian side is;
Forwards:
Robert Barbieri (Treviso)
Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais/FRA)
Salvatore Costanzo (Treviso)
Carlo Antonio Del Fava (Ulster/NIR)
Santiago Dellape (Toulon/FRA)
Paul Derbyshire (Padua)
Jaco Erasmus (Viadana)
Carlo Festuccia (Racing Metro/FRA)
Leonardo Ghiraldini (Calvisano)
Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro/FRA)
Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais/FRA)
Salvatore Perugini (Toulouse/FRA)
Tommaso Reato (Rovigo)
Michele Rizzo (Padua)
Alessandro Zanni (Calvisano)
Backs:
Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais/FRA)
Gonzalo Canale (Clermont/FRA)
Pablo Canavosio (Viadana)
Gonzalo Garcia (Calvisano)
Andrea Marcato (Treviso)
Andrea Masi (Biarritz/FRA)
Luke McLean (Calvisano)
Luciano Orquera (Brive/FRA)
Riccardo Pavan (Parma)
Simon Picone (Treviso)
Matteo Pratichetti (Calvisano)
Kaine Robertson (Viadana)
Michele Sepe (Capitolina Rome)
Giulio Toniolatti (Capitolina Rome)
All Blacks 2009 Test Schedule
The New Zealand All Blacks announced their 2009 Test Schedule today. The good news for All Blacks fans is they get to see their team all over the country with 2 matches to be held in Wellington and one each in Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Hamilton.
The real winner of the 2009 schedule is Hamilton who missed out on an international this year and will be keen to impress next year.
Sat 13 June - All Blacks v France - Carisbrook, Dunedin 7.35pm
Sat 20 June - All Blacks v France - Westpac Stadium, Wellington 7.35pm
Sat 27 June - All Blacks v Italy - AMI Stadium, Christchurch 7.35pm
Sat 18 July - All Blacks v Australia - Eden Park, Auckland 7.35pm
Sat 12 Sept - All Blacks v South Africa Waikato Stadium, Hamilton 7.35pm
Sat 19 Sept - All Blacks v Australia Westpac Stadium, Wellington 7.35pm
IRB World Rankings
South Africa have reclaimed the second spot on the IRB World Rankings after their win over Australia 53-8 in Johannesburg. Australia can reclaim second spot with a win against New Zealand in Brisbane.
No other changes occured in the Top 10 due to a lack of international rugby matches.
The list of the top 10 are below;
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Argentina
England
Wales
France
Ireland
Scotland
Italy
IRB World Rugby Rankings
The IRB latest world ranking’s have been a major blow to the South African Springboks as they have dropped from No 1. at ths start of the year to No 3. behind the New Zealand All Blacks and Australian Wallabies.
South Africa have had a horror Rugby Tri-Nations series while Australia have improved dramatically after being fourth at the start of the Rugby Tri-Nations series.
The list of the top 10 are below;
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Argentina
England
Wales
France
Ireland
Scotland
Italy