Matteo Minozzi’s scintillating score for Italy during their clash with Scotland has been named as the inaugural Try of the Round in the Autumn Nations Cup.
Minozzi won the Round 1 contest by a landslide as the try tallied a huge 66.2% of the public vote to comfortably see off the other three tries in contention.
Duhan van der Merwe was denied a Player of the Round-Try of the Round double, although his powerful score against Italy finished second in the voting with 12.4%, while James Lowe’s late try (12.1%) and Elliot Daly finishing off Jonathan Joseph’s scything run (9.4%) came third and fourth respectively.
The result is no more than the Minozzi try deserved after some brilliant work by the Italian backs led to a score that lit up the opening weekend of the Autumn Nations Cup.
Marco Zanon made a powerful initial break, bouncing off one tackle, handing off another defender and keeping the play alive with a pass to Marcello Violi.
Violi spun in a tackle and flicked the ball to Mattia Bellini, who somehow produced a one-handed offload to the supporting Minozzi to go over in the corner.
Hopefully the three matches in Round 2 this weekend will produce some scores that are just as stunning.
Try of the Round for Round 1 results Matteo Minozzi – ITALY v Scotland: 66.2% Duhan van der Merwe – SCOTLAND v Italy: 12.4% James Lowe – IRELAND v Wales: 12.1% Elliot Daly – ENGLAND v Georgia: 9.4%
