Match Centre: Rugby World Cup Pool A: Italy 52-8 Namibia

Italy 52-8 Namibia, Pool A, Saint-Etienne

Italy scored five second half tries as they defeated Namibia 52-8 in their Pool A World Cup opener in Saint-Etienne on Saturday.

Italy have never reached a knock out stage of the World Cup having played nine editions but the victory would help them gain some momentum as they face Uruguay, New Zealand and France in the remainder of the group stage.

Namibia were the first to open their account through a penalty goal from Tiaan Swanepoel in the fourth minute but Tommaso Allan kicked from the tee to level the scores in the 8th minute.

Namibia were down to 14 players temporarily with Torsten Van Jaarsveld sin-binned for collapsing an Italian maul near the tryline and Italy responded back with Lorenzo Cannone powering over from the resulting line out.

Italy continued to make use of the numerical advantage as Paolo Garbisi went past a couple of defenders to touchdown and Allan kicked the conversions on both the occasions to ensure they extended their lead to 17-3 before Namibia responded back with fly-half Swanepoel setting up Gerswin Mouton over the line to reduce the gap down to nine points.

Swanepoel had a chance to reduce the arrears but his penalty at the stroke of half time went wide as the teams completed the opening half with a 17-8 scoreline.

Italy showed better intent in the second half with Dino Lamb-Cona diving from close range and Allan improved before they claimed the bonus point with Monty Ioane offloading for Ange Capuozzo to finish over in the 55th minute making it making it 31-8.

Even though Namibia showed some resilience, Italy had a strong finish to the game with Manuel Zuliani and Paolo Odogwu crossing over in the closing stage of the game as they completed a 52-8 victory to kick-start their campaign.

What's Next:

Namibia will be facing New Zealand next in Toulouse on Friday while Italy will be taking on Uruguay in Nice on 20th September.

Reactions:

Italy head coach Kieran Crowley is delighted with their win over Namibia.

"If you'd given me 50 points before the game I would have grabbed them. But we turned over about 22 balls and you can't afford to do that.

“But it was pretty hot out there and the boys are pretty gassed so we'll take it and we'll move on."

Namibia skipper Johan Deysel rued the lack of discipline as they started the tournament with a defeat.

"We didn't always get the ball we wanted - we got scrappy ball,” he said.

“We didn't execute what we planned every time and we were put under the pump in the set phases, the mauls and the scrums. They have heaps of experience. It's a great game to learn from."

Team line up:

Italy: Allan; Capuozzo, Brex, Morisi, Ioane; Garbisi, Varney; Fischetti, Nicotera, Ferrari, Lamb, Ruzza, Negri, Lamaro, Cannone.

Reserves: Faiva, Nemer, Riccioni, Sisi, Zuliani, Page-Relo, Odogwu, Bruno.

Namibia: Rossouw; Mouton, Deysel, Burger, Greyling; Swanepoel, Stevens; Sethie, Van Jaarsveld, Coetzee, Ludick, Uanivi, Conradie, Retief, Hardwick.

Reserves: Van der Westhuizen, Benade, Viviers, De Klerk, Gaoseb, Theron, Van der Bergh, Malan.