Dominant Italy claim French scalp again

Italy made a dream start to their RBS Six Nations campaign yesterday with a dominant 23-18 win over arch-rivals France at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Their famous win in the same fixture two years ago could have been classed as lucky but they left nothing to chance this time around putting on a display that will echo very loudly in the rugby World.
As ever, the Azzurri were off to a flying start and when national hero and captain Sergio Parisse dived over the line following a three-minute long passage of play the crowd went off their feet only five minutes into the game.
His opposite number Louis Picamoles replied in kind soon after to put Les Bleus on the board but a drop goal and a penalty in quick succession from man-of-the-match Luciano Orquera put the Italians 13-5 in front.
An explosive start from the home side was to be expected in this Latin derby and France seemed to have let the storm go before putting their game in place and eventually go into the break 15-13 ahead after Benjamin Fall went over at the end of a slick move between Yoann Huget and the Racing Metro’s winger.
Fred Michalak extended the lead with a penalty but, when you’d feel France had to take the game away, they had no answer to the aggressive Italian defence and instead they let the opposition come back into the game.
Following a great team move which put the French on the back foot, Leicester‘s Martin Castrogiovanni dived over to level the score before Orquera slotted the conversion and Italy was in front again with 20 minutes to go.
By then France lost all type of organisation in attack and their ‘one-pass’ lateral game was nowhere near sharp enough to find gaps in the Italian defence.
Orquera’s replacement Kris Burton then showed all his class to kick a cold-blooded drop goal and put the home side five point clear.
The last ten minutes were a one-way traffic with France desperately trying to score and avoid another humiliation but handling mistakes prevented them from doing so and instead Italy claimed their most famous victory to date.