Italy head coach Conor O’Shea has sung the praises of his Italian squad after earning a battling 28-17 victory over Georgia in Florence.
O’Shea’s side ran in four tries to down the visitors as they shone in the warm November sun with Tommaso Allan capping off a fine display with a crucial fourth try midway through the second-half.
Georgia took the lead early doors through Tamaz Mtchedlidze, but the Azzurri never panicked as they fought back in impressive fashion to down Milton Haig’s men with Michele Campagnaro, Mattia Bellini and Dean Budd all scoring before the break.
Their opponents came back towards the end following a yellow card shown to Tommaso Benvenuti, but Italy kept their composure to maintain their undefeated record against the Georgians.
The fight shown by O’Shea’s men was impressive and the Italian head coach was delighted by the spirit shown by his side when they were reduced to 14 men.
“I’m happy for all the guys, today under a different pressure, we won an important match for our development project,” he said.
“We want to be a team of the highest level, in the last 12 months we’ve only won against Fiji and Japan.
“Today against Georgia – close to us in the ranking – was a fundamental victory for this group.
“We will not always win but we want to be more competitive, with a different depth than in the past. We know that we still have to improve many aspects in the future to be at the highest level.”
Captain fantastic
The key to Italy’s success was their togetherness and their endeavour to match Georgia’s physical strength. A major player in their ability to withstand pressure was captain Leonardo Ghiraldini.
The Toulouse hooker rose to the challenge and embodied the efforts of the Azzurri squad as they secured a third successive victory against Georgia.
The Italian spelt out the importance of the win, saying: “For us the victory was very important against a team very close to us in the world rankings as for Japan in the last summer tour.
“There was pressure, normal for a match like that and we answered it well on the pitch.”
“I believe that in general the reaction in the field and the spirit has always been excellent. We certainly need to iron out some details to score more, but we have shown that we have the quality.”
