FLORENCE -- Just seven short days after suffering a humiliating 68-10 defeat against a rampant New Zealand side, Italian rugby bounced back with a vengeance at Florence’s Stadio Franchi, to record a first ever victory over South Africa. The 20-18 scoreline did little to flatter an extremely impressive Italian performance and augurs well for the future under new coach Conor O’Shea.

 The embattled Springboks have been under increasing pressure in recent weeks having drawn with the Barbarians and lost to England at Twickenham for the first time in 10 years, at the beginning of November. However, the return of star player Brian Habana, who had been absent for the England examination, proved to be somewhat of a catalyst for an early return to form for South Africa. 

 The winger opened the scoring at the Stadio Franchi, touching down a try after excellent set-up play by Willie le Roux, however the silly mistakes, which have been plaguing the Boks in recent times, were to become an important factor once more. Just after opening the scoring, South Africa conceded a penalty, which ultimately allowed Italy to score their first try and take the lead following a Carlo Canna conversion. 

 Despite growing Italian dominance as the first half developed, South Africa remained dangerous on the break and would re-take the lead through Damian de Allende after great work from Pat Lambie, who broke through the Italy defence from within his own half. Lynchpin Lambie would add two further points from the resulting conversion with the Boks leading 12-10 at half time. 

  As the contest continued into the second half South Africa had further chances to stretch the lead, especially following an early yellow card for Italian lock Marco Fuser. However, the southern hemisphere side failed to capitalise on their 10-minute man advantage and only added a Lambie penalty during the period. 

 The return of Fuser would provide a turning point in the match as just a few minutes later Italy made the decisive breakthrough. Giovanbattista Venditti scored a converted try after strong work in fending off Elton Jantjies. With 15 minutes remaining on the clock the teams traded penalties to make the scoreline 20-18 in favour of the home side, and Italy would hold on for a memorable and historic victory.

  "I was just delighted,” said Italy head coach Conor O’Shea, who is enjoying his first year in the role after a previous spell with Harlequins in the United Kingdom. “We knew going into we had an opportunity if we could stay with them. I tried to explain to the players pre-match how the game would unfold if we could stay with them.” 

 "The players said after the game that you could feel the tension just mounting on the South African side. They're under so much pressure and so much scrutiny. It gave us that opportunity and our guys were incredible, the way they defended and tackled and stayed in the hunt. We took our opportunities, kicked our goals which always helps and found ourselves in a good position.”

 Italian rugby has certainly enjoyed more troughs than peaks in recent years yet the passion for the game in Italy has never been questioned. The coach underlined the importance of this victory in changing perceptions and acknowledged that it provides a good foundation for the future of Italian rugby. 

 "This one result has changed a huge amount of people's belief and perceptions,” he commented. “There is a long, long way to go before we can be competitive on a really regular basis, but that result will kick off a huge movement over here, there's no doubt about that." 

 Veteran Italy captain, Sergio Parisse, who became the first ever Italian to be nominated for the World Player of the Year Award in 2013 and earned a record 121st cap against the Boks, echoed the words of his coach but was slightly less circumspect. Parisse described the achievement at Florence’s Stade Franchi as the best in the history of Italian rugby. 

 “This must just be the start,” he said. Now that we have won against a great team, which is in difficulty, but still a great team, we have to be conscious of that. For years and years we've been coming into the changing room at the break close in score and then lost in the second half. This time we kept on playing minute by minute and, at the end, we got an historic win." 

 dtw