Whilst Willie Le Roux and the two South African wingers wreaked havoc from deep, South Africa were wasteful, clumsy and lacked composure in the Italian 22. The Italian defence was very well organised, but you would expect the Boks to be much more clinical and have much more composure in front of the Italian line. Shortly after half time, South Africa added 3 more points from a penalty for offside, making it 15-10.
Comfortable as they seemed, Italy shocked the South Africans when Venditti then bullied his way over the line in the corner tying the scores at 15-a-piece. Canna then hit the following conversion to give Italy a 17-15 lead with 23 minutes to play. Disappointingly, the captain Sergio Parisse was caught offside just inside his own half and South Africa regained the lead.
The winning points were scored when the second row Lodewyk de Jaeger failed to roll away from a ruck inside his 10-metre line straight in front of the posts, which Canna kicked with ease to put Italy 20-18 up with 15 minutes to play. It could have been 25-18, had an Italian try not been ruled out in the dying minutes of the game, but nonetheless Italy held on to claim one of the biggest results in their history.
A herculean defensive effort and some clinical kicking from Canna made Italy’s first win in 13 attempts v South Africa possible. Whilst this result is fantastic for Italy, the South African coach, Allistar Coetzee, could well be fearing for his job after two straight defeats, with Wales to play next weekend.
BY HARRY MAXWELL
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