‘Credit to Tonga, they never went away but our execution was not good enough today’

Tonga’s Tane Takulua capped a superb all-round display by slotting over a last-minute penalty to seal a 19-17 win over Italy in a see-saw Test in Padua yesterday.
The Newcastle scrum-half kicked four penalties and converted Siale Piutau’s 51st-minute try as the Pacific islanders repeatedly came from behind to upset a side two places above them in the world rankings. Lorenzo Cittadini and Tommaso Allan ensured Italy won the try count two to one. But the failure to take numerous opportunities combined with some ill-disciplined defending to ensure a painful comedown from last weekend’s historic win over South Africa.
Head coach Conor O’Shea admitted Italy’s level of performance had slipped from the standard set against the Springboks.
“Credit to Tonga, they never went away but our execution was not good enough today and our discipline let us down,” he said. “We let slip two or three opportunities in the first half when, had we taken them, it would have been game over.”
Tonga spurned an early chance when Takulua pushed a third-minute penalty wide for what was to be his only miss of the day.
But Italy were soon dominating territorially and their pressure paid off after 12 minutes when giant prop Cittadini spun off the outside of a maul from the lineout and powered through Takulua’s last-ditch tackle to touch down in the corner.
Carlo Canna converted and Tonga suffered another setback when number eight Tevita Koloamatangi was stretchered off after an off-the-ball collision with Italy wing Giovanbattista Venditti. Replacement Valentino Mapapalangi was only on the field for three minutes before he was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle but Italy failed to exploit the numerical advantage.
Takulua slotted over a 33rd-minute penalty to reduce the deficit and the first half ended with the Italians defending desperately after prop Sami Panico was sin-binned for a high tackle.
Another penalty from Tukulua cut the deficit to one point and Tonga went ahead when Piutau went over 11 minutes after the restart.
Australian-born centre Luke McLean reclaimed the initiative for Italy, piercing Tonga’s midfield with a deft little forward kick that he collected himself before sending replacement flyhalf Allan in under the posts.
Italy looked the more likely winners at that stage and one sweeping move ended with Giulio Bisegni touching down in the corner only to be denied after a video replay established that his boot had strayed fractionally into touch just before.
That set the tone for a dramatic final 20 minutes.
A superb solo break by Takulua saw the visitors win a penalty close to the posts that enabled them to reclaim the lead with the added bonus of seeing Allan banished to the sinbin for his desperate attempt to prevent the maurauding scrum from reaching the touchline.
With less than three minutes left, fullback Edoardo Padovani put Italy back ahead but Tonga’s final surge proved too strong to resist and Takulua coolly clinched the victory with the final kick of the match.

Scotland end good year with big win over Georgia
Scotland absorbed the shock of conceding a fourth minute try to scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze before steamrollering Georgia 43-16 with six tries of their own. Full back Stuart Hogg scored tries in both halves, while there were also tries for wingers Tommy Seymour and Sean Maitland and flanker Hamish Watson, plus a penalty try as the Scots ran out convincing winners on the plastic pitch that is home to Kilmarnock Football
Club.
With scrum-half and captain Grieg Laidlaw registering a perfect six out of six place-kicking record (five conversions and a penalty), Scotland head coach Vern Cotter enjoyed a comfortable victory against a Georgia side coached by Milton Haig, his former playing and coaching partner at Bay of Plenty in New Zealand.
For Cotter, who will move on to French Top-14 side Montpellier when Gregor Townsend replaces him in June, it completed an encouraging November series, following on from a 23-22 loss to Australia and a 19-16 win against Argentina.
For Haig and Georgia, following their 20-16 victory over Samoa in Tblisi last week, the size of the defeat came as a blow to their long-term ambitions of being added to an expanded Six Nations Championship. It was from a line-out drive after four minutes that the Georgians struck the first blow, Lobzhanidze scampering down the blindside to score in the right corner.
Full-back Merab Kvirikashvili was off target with the conversion but the sizeable contingent of Georgian supporters in the crowd had a 5-0 lead to celebrate. Not that they were cheering for long. The only previous encounter between the countries — a 15-6 win for Scotland in Invercargill at the 2011 World Cup — had failed to yield a try but there were two in the opening eight minutes this
time.
Hogg chipped a deftly-weighted kick into the left corner for Seymour to touch down. Laidlaw’s conversion furnished Scotland with a 7-5 lead and they soon stretched the gap to nine points. With 14 minutes gone Cotter had the satisfaction of watching his forwards trundling the Georgian pack back to their own line, referee Matt Carley awarding a penalty try and sending Montpellier lock Konstantine Mikautadze to the sin bin for trying to pull down the Scottish maul.