Tale of two halves as ill-disciplined Italy beat Uruguay at World Cup

NICE: Ill-disciplined Italy scored 31 unanswered second-half points to take temporary charge of Pool A with a 38-17 World Cup victory over Uruguay in Nice on Wednesday (Sep 20).

Visions of Uruguay repeating their shock victory over Fiji four years ago in Japan were vivid as the South Americans finished the first 40 minutes 17-7 up as Italy had two players sent to the sin bin.

But the Italians made the most of a yellow carding for Uruguay skipper Andres Vilaseca early in the second-half with two converted tries that turned the tide at the Stade de Nice.

"This is a real group, we are a family and that is with all 33 players that are here," said Italy captain Michele Lamaro. "I am really proud of the boys tonight.

"It was a really tough game, but I told all the Uruguayan lads to be so proud of their performance."

Having seen off Namibia 52-8 in their opening match, Italy bagged another try-scoring bonus point to set themselves up perfectly ahead of two massive matches against pool favourites New Zealand and France, both in Lyon, on Sep 29 and Oct 6 respectively.

Uruguay had pushed a second-string France side close in their opener before going down 27-12 and will target their match against Namibia on Sep 27 as their must-win game from the pool phase.

Felipe Etcheverry missed an early penalty for Uruguay, but Italy spurned a chance of their own given early dominance in the scrum and from a re-set, Lorenzo Pani scored on an inside crashball. Tommaso Allan kicked the extras.

Uruguay put the rolling maul that worked so effectively against France into action, but the ball spilled just as the forwards neared the Italian tryline.

Etcheverry pulled a second penalty wide of the posts, but then enjoyed Uruguay's closest chance for a try as he