NICE – With their victory over Uruguay the Italians took top spot off Ireland for average ruck speed (3.19s), and their 91 per cent tackle success rate puts them first in that category too.
At times they were wasteful, though, against Uruguay who are ranked third for turnovers per game (8.5) and first for turnovers at the breakdown (6.5).
Uruguay’s impressive blindside flanker Manuel Ardao (pictured) has the most breakdown steals (6) to his name at the tournament, earning him high praise from Italy assistant coach Marius Goosen.
“There’s probably only two or three guys in world rugby at the moment that have the skill that number six has around the breakdown – like [David] Pocock used to have,” Goosen said of Ardao.
“We were untidy first half, our discipline let us down, we had seven turnovers inside our own 40, you can’t do that. Uruguay put the pressure on us and made us pay” said Italy coach Kieran Crowley