Head coach Conor O’Shea was full of pride in his Italian charges after their defeat to Australia and is confident significant progress has been made by the squad over the summer.
Italy were beaten 34-13 by RBS 6 Nations rivals Scotland in Singapore before a three-point loss to Fiji was followed by a 40-27 defeat to Australia on Saturday.
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The Azzurri were trailing 28-27 to the Australians in Brisbane with just five minutes left to play but were undone by tries from Bernard Foley and Reece Hodge.
Centre Michele Campagnaro’s try had helped the Italians recover from 21-6 down with Edoardo Padovani and Tommaso Benvenuti also dotting down midway through the second half.
Those tries, both converted by Tommaso Allan, reduced the deficit from 28-13 to 28-27 but Australia rallied to find a pair of late scores of their own.
Regardless, O’Shea was happy with the progress of his squad following the summer tour, despite failing to record a win since their 20-18 victory over South Africa in November.
He said: “I am proud of what the boys did today and throughout the tour.
“This performance is the confirmation of the fact that, if we continue to make the necessary changes to our system, we can become very competitive in the seasons ahead.
“The guys have produced an incredible effort, but most have grown over recent weeks. We built a great opportunity and we did it playing like Italy.
“I’m sorry for the result but proud of what the team showed on the field today.”
