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Cape Town - Italy ran amok against Canada to bag their second bonus-point win in as many games with a 48-7 Rugby World Cup victory in Fukuoka Thursday.
It was not a perfect performance as Italy slipped at times from flair and finesse to sloppy, but they did enough to dominate seven tries to one.
With Italy seeking a first World Cup quarter-final berth, their maximum points from two matches sent a message to heavyweights South Africa not to underestimate them.
The Springboks, who lost their opener against New Zealand, paid a high price when they were guilty of taking Japan lightly at the last World Cup and cannot afford to do the same again when they meet Italy in Shizuoka in eight days.
Italy, still with the All Blacks to play as well as South Africa, showed their depth by making 10 changes to the starting XV when they beat Namibia and were still too strong for the Canadians.
A day after Uruguay's shock win over Fiji, Canada started with hopes of achieving a similar upset.
The mostly neutral crowd also gave their support to the Canadians in the 22,000 seat stadium, but it was the vastly rearranged Italian side with the superior forward pack who controlled most of the game.
In a dominant opening spell, flyhalf Tommaso Allan landed a penalty and converted tries by Braam Steyn and Dean Budd.
Steyn sent Peter Nelson flying and barged between Nick Blevins and Jeff Hassler on a short-range charge at the line.
New Zealand-born second-rower Budd, filling in as captain with Sergio Parisse rested, galloped 30 metres through a non-existent defence for his try.
Italy's explosive start realised 17 points in 15 minutes.
Canada arrested the scoring spree for the remainder of the half, but their own scoring opportunities evaporated with missed tackles, a misfiring lineout, and wrong options.
Replacement Matt Heaton dropped the ball when he had the line at his mercy after Tyler Ardron busted his way through the Italian defence.
DTH Van der Merwe confronted Italian fullback Matteo Minozzi with a two-man overlap and fed Gordon McRorie on the outside who was bustled into touch.
The second half was barely three minutes old when Italy were on the board again with Sebastian Negri scoring their third try.
Canada went close again when Van der Merwe set up Jeff Hassler but the cover defence put the wing out in the corner.
A penalty try for an illegal tackle by Heaton ensured the bonus point for Italy and reduced Canada to 14-men with Heaton in the sin bin.
Mattia Bellini stretched the lead to 36-0 before Andrew Coe scored in the right corner to get Canada on the board.
But the Italian pack, who had an impressive night, responded immediately to drive over the line for Federico Zani to touch down, and the backline followed with a long-range attack that ended the tame with a try to Matteo Minozzi.
Scorers:
Italy
Tries: Braam Steyn, Dean Budd, Sebastian Negri, Mattia Bellini, Federico Zani, Matteo Minozzi, penalty try
Conversions: Tommaso Allan (3), Carlo Canna
Penalty: Allan
Canada
Try: Andrew Coe
Conversion: Peter Nelson
Teams:
Italy
15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Jayden Hayward, 11 Giulio Bisegni, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Braam Steyn, 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd (captain), 4 David Sisi, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Substitutes: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Maxime Mbanda, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Mattia Bellini
Canada
15 Patrick Parfrey, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Ben Lesage, 12 Nick Blevins, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 10 Peter Nelson, 9 Gordon McRorie, 8 Tyler Ardron (captain), 7 Lucas Rumball, 6 Michael Sheppard, 5 Josh Larsen, 4 Conor Keys, 3 Matt Tierney, 2 Eric Howard, 1 Hubert Buydens
Substitutes: 16 Benoit Piffero, 17 Djustice Duru-Sears, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Luke Campbell, 20 Matt Heaton, 21 Jamie Mackenzie, 22 Ciaran Hearn, 23 Andrew Coe
