Italy’s first action in the November International Rugby Series sees them take on Australia in Udine Saturday
Italy v Australia, Saturday 8th November, Udine, KO 19:40 (South African time)
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Hollie Davidson (SRU), Sam Grove-White (SRU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
Weather Forecast – Udine
Italy:
Italy were not in action last weekend and their most recent internationals came in South Africa in July where they lost the first test 42-24 and the second 45-0. They had started that tour with a 73-6 win in Namibia.
In the Six Nations earlier this year Italy lost in Scotland (31-19) before beating Wales in a home fixture (22-15). They went on to lose at home to France (73-24), in England (47-24) and they went down 22-17 at home to Ireland.
In the November internationals of 2024 Italy lost at home to Argentina (50-18) and New Zealand (29-11) either side of a 0-17 victory over Georgia.
After this Italy will host the Springboks and then Chile
Australia:
Th Wallabies took on England at Twickenham last week, they were given around 8.5 points start on the bookmakers main handicap line and that provide to be insufficient as England came out on top 25-7. Potter scored the only Australian try which came in the first half but they trailed 10-7 at the break and the last 2 of England’s 4 tries came in the final 10 minutes.
The Wallabies end of year tour began in Tokyo and they had to dig deep to see off Japan 19-15.
In the Rugby Championship Australia eventually finished third with a record of 2 wins and 4 defeats. They started with a double header against the Boks in South Africa and won the first clash 38-22 before losing the second 30-22. Two home fixtures against Argentina went down to the wire with the Wallabies edging the first match 28-24 before losing the second 28-26. They were still in with some sort of shout in the title race heading into the final rounds but they suffered back to back defeats to the All Blacks, in Auckland (33-24) and in Perth (28-14).
In July the Wallabies lost a 3 match home series against the B&I Lions 2-1.
In last years November series Australia started with a thrilling (42-37) win over England at Twickenham and followed up with a (52-20) win in Wales. After that they went down in Scotland (27-13) and were edged out in Ireland (22-19).
After this the Wallabies will take on Ireland and then France.
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2022 INT Florence Italy 28-27 Australia
Nov 2018 INT Padova Italy 7-26 Australia
June 2017 INT Brisbane Australia 40-27 Italy
Team News
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Louis Lynach, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Ross Vintcent, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Alessandro Izekor, 21 Martin Page-Relo, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Leonardo Marin
Australia: 15 Andrew Kellaway, 14 Corey Toole, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Carter Gordon, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell.
Replacements: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Rob Valetini, 20 Pete Samu, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Tane Edmed, 23 Filipo Daugunu
The Betting
Average early show, subject to change
Italy +13.5 points at 9/10
Australia -13.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this week’s internationals will be posted on this blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.