Italy and USA meet in a do or die game for two sides that lost their first game last weekend, and we’re covering the game with the Who, What, Where, When and How of the big game which will be an interesting affair.
The 2017 Rugby League World Cup is a big deal for us, being huge rugby league fans and love a minnow or two, and we’ll be covering all of the games throughout.
So visit our 2017 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP MATCH CENTRE
Now onto the Italy v USA game.
ITALY v USA MATCH REVIEW
RESULT – Who Won?
ITALY 46
Tries: J. Tramontana (8), J. Tedesco (14), J. Mantellato (19), R. Ghietti (25), J. Tramontana (37), J. Tedesco (43), P. Vaughan (59), M. Cerruto (73)
Goals: J. Mantellato 7 Conv
USA 0
THE DOWLING-TAMATI #RLWC2017 PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT
We’ve decided that a tournament as big as the 2017 Rugby League World Cup needs a Player of the tournament, and who better than International relations specialists Kevin Tamati and Greg Dowling to name our award.
We award points on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale every match, and the results for this game is below. For the running total from all of the games visit our 2017 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP MATCH CENTRE
5 Points – Joseph Tramontana
4 Points – James Tedesco
3 Points – Mason Cerruto
2 Points – Corey Makelim
1 Point – Mark Minichiello
MATCH PREVIEW
Who: ITALY v USA
Where and When: Sunday 5th November at Townsville
When is it on TV? Channel 7Mate LIVE @ 4pm
What’s the Story?
There’s plenty of links between the USA and Italy going back through history, but rugby league is certainly not one of them, this is the first ever meeting of the two rugby league minnows.
Both sides lost last weekend, and although USA lost by a bigger margin you could argue that Italy’s 38-8 loss to Italy was the most disappointing of the two, given that the Italian had stars like James Tedesco and Nathan Brown. They were thoroughly outplayed by an Irish side who had far less talent at their disposal.
Then of course the big story for these sides was off the field for Italy as reports of Shannon Wakeman punching James Tedesco because he thought that Tedesco was “hitting on his girlfriend”. In the end the players sorted it out after it was reported Wakeman was kicked out of the team. Will they turn it around on the field, or is it a window into a team that is a rabble. Eyes will be watching this weekend.
Who Will Win and Why?
Italy should win, but they should have won last weekend too against Ireland.
Hopefully for Italy this weekend Terry Campese will make it onto the field after he was alte withdrawal last weekend. It left Jack Johns a little exposed and as a result Ital struggled. Terry Campese is the perfect partner for the young Johns, and his experience in the halves will make the difference. If he plays.
The USA didn’t offer a great deal against Fiji last weekend, and on paper it is hard to see them getting past Italy in this clash. But that’s the beauty of the Rugby League World Cup, as proved by Ireland last weekend, a good side playing well together can triumph over a side with a handful of NRL Stars.
Italy by 18
Who to watch for?
All eyes will once again be on James Tedesco, but probably for more than one reason. After the incident with Shannon Wakeman people will be awaiting the response on field from the soon-to-be Rooster. Tedesco was disappointing against Ireland, and the Italians will be hoping that he find his best form and lead Italy to victory. They will need him to as a loss and a Fijian win will rule them out of quarter final contention.
TEAMS
Who’s in the Teams?
ITALY
1 James Tedesco 2 Mason Cerruto 3 Justin Castellaro 4 Nathan Milone 5 Josh Mantellato 6 Terry Campese 7 Ryan Ghietti 8 Paul Vaughan 9 Joseph Tramontana 10 Daniel Alvaro 11 Joel Riethmuller 12 Mark Minichiello (C) 13 Nathan Brown 14 Christopher Centrone 15 Brendan Santi 16 Shannon Wakeman 17 Jayden Walker 18 Gavin Hiscox 19 Richard Lepori 20 Christophe Calegari 21 Gioele Celerino
USA
1 Corey Makelim 2 Ryan Burroughs 3 Junior Vaivai 4 Jonathan Alley 5 Bureta Faraimo 6 Kristian Freed 7 Tui Samoa 8 Eddy Pettybourne 9 David Marando 10 Mark Offerdahl (C) 11 Danny Howard 12 Matt Shipway 13 Nicholas Newlin 14 Sam Tochterman-Talbott 15 Fotukava Malu 16 Steve Howard 17 Gabriel Farley 18 Charles Cortalano 19 Joe Eichner 20 David Ulch 21 Joshua Rice
MATCH REVIEW
Coming soon.
Points coming after the match.
