Russia suffered a 53-17 defeat to Italy on Tuesday, with the uncompromising Azzurri exploiting the Bears’ weak forward play and consigning them to their second straight defeat at their debut Rugby World Cup.
Russia put in a gutsy but defensively frail performance riddled with backward-moving scrums, weak lineouts and handling errors to concede nine tries to a ruthless Italian side.
Russia avoided a whitewash however, scoring their first three World Cup tries, and showing a stronger defense in the second half, with an impressive performance from man of the match Victor Gresev.
The Bears remain bottom of Pool C after an opening 13-6 defeat to the U.S.A., while Italy’s first win of the campaign – following a 32-6 defeat to Australia – moves them above the Americans in third.
Italy captain Sergio Parisse was Russia’s undoing in the first half, scoring the opening try and having a hand in at least three others.
Parisse went over after six minutes, skipping past the Russian forwards with little difficulty.
Soon after Marco Bortolami’s quick hands released Giulio Toniolatti, who touched down in corner for his first ever try for his country.
Russia gifted Italy with opportunities, with Vasily Artemyev fumbling a the ball under pressure inside his own five-metre line to allow Tommaso Benvenuti in for the third try on 16 minutes.
The barrage continued as Parisse sold Konstantin Rachkov a dummy to burst through and offload to Toniolatti for his second try and the Italians’ fourth.
As Russia were forced to commit numbers to the breakdown, they left themselves exposed on the wings, where the Italians often had numbers waiting.
Russia collapsed the scrum inside five metres to concede a penalty try before Alexander Yanyushkin darted through to score the Bears’ first try at the World Cup. That rare attack was aided by the dismissal of Fabio Ongaro for a late tackle.Italy scrum half Edoardo Gori quickly snuffed out the Bears’ elation, however, starting a move from the scrum and then collecting a reverse pass to score under the posts.
Russia regrouped for the second half, eliminated half their errors and became more difficult to break down.
They held off the Italians for a while with a decent spell of possession, before succumbing to a skilful chip through by Benvenuti, who beat the ball to the dead ball line to touch down with his fingertips.
But Russia bit back this time, as Vladimir Ostroushko skipped past Italy’s Luke McLean down the right to score, finishing off a move started by a surge on the opposite flank by Gresev.
McLean had his revenge, however, slipping down the blind side and touching down after a lineout.
Russia again fought back, showing strong rucking and sharper improvising from the backs. A long pass out wide allowed Alexey Makovetsky to run over unchallenged for Russia’s final try.
The last word went to the Italians, however, after replacement Alessandro Zanini collected the ball from a scrum and surged over.
Russia’s next test comes against Ireland, surprise victors over Australia last week, in Rotorua on Sunday. Italy play the U.S. in Nelson next Tuesday.
