USA 20-24 Italy: Azzurri hand Conor O'Shea first victory
By Paul Vinnell
Last Updated: 19/06/16 11:50am
Hooker Ornel Gega scored two tries as Italy handed new coach Conor O'Shea his first victory with a 24-20 win over the USA in San Jose.
The Eagles fought back from 21-13 down to 21-20 but the Azzurri - beaten in Argentina last week in O'Shea's first game - held on in a bruising match.
The match started evenly with USA fly-half AJ MacGinty and Italy counterpart Carlo Canna trading early penalties.
But the Eagles moved into a 10-3 lead when a superb break from full-back Will Holder ended with Canna being adjudged to have killed the move with a deliberate knock-on.
Canna was sent to the sin-bin and the Eagles were awarded a penalty try converted by MacGinty for a 10-3 lead.
Awarded a penalty within kickable range, the Italians opted instead to go for the corner and from the ensuing line-out Albania-born Gega rumbled over for a try.
Luke McLean missed the conversion but Italy moved into an 11-10 lead just before half-time after Canna returned to the field to kick a penalty when US skipper Todd Clever infringed at a scrum.
Canna then drilled over a drop goal to make it 14-10 before MacGinty kicked another penalty to draw the Eagles back to 14-13.
But Italian forward power came to the fore midway through the half when Eagles forward Cam Dolan was sin-binned.
Italy made the man advantage count, once again opting for a line-out at close range. The outcome was the same again, a perfectly executed rolling maul which ended with Gega burrowing over for his second score.
Canna's conversion made it 21-13 and Italy were in command.
In the 69th minute though the US produced their best move of the night, when a lovely half-break by MacGinty inside the Italian 22 saw him split the defence before offloading to Mike Te'o who fed to New Zealand-born Tony Lamborn for the try.
MacGinty converted to set up a frantic finale but a late penalty by Italy replacement Guglielmo Palazzani saw the Azzurri home.
