A late penalty from Tommaso Allan has given Italy a three-point lead after the opening half of their Rugby World Cup Pool D encounter against Canada at Elland Road in Leeds.
Both teams made early mistakes and it was a stop-start opening 10 minutes as neither side was able to put together any momentum with a prolonged attack.
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Nathan Hirayama kicked the first points of the day for Canada and moments later they were 10 to the good when DTH van der Merwe stormed down the left before exchanging passes with Ciaran Hearn to fox the backtracking Italian defence and go over for a try.
The Maple Leafs' double-digit lead lasted just a few seconds as Italy responded with a try of their own in the 17th minute. Scrum-half Edoardo Gori tore through the Canadian line before prop Michele Rizzo collected the offload and scored his first ever international try.
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Allan made no mistake with the conversion and then sent over a penalty after 24 minutes to bring the scores level at 10 apiece.
The fly-half had to go off for a few minutes after picking up an injury, but he returned just before the break to kick the Azzurri into a 13-10 lead.
Follow the second half live on Sports Mole here.
Pascal Lemesre
