Scotland and Italy start well

After last Saturday’s appetizers (Australia wins in Scotland and New Zealand in Japan), the Autumn Tour 2022, which, less than a year after the World Cup in France, should offer a good idea of ​​who will be the favorite and who will be the outsiders from the next World Cup, It continues on Saturday. The first big European nation on board on Saturday, Italy made short work of Samoa, a team ranked first (11 vs 14) in the world rugby rankings. Squadra Azzurra, who struggled through the Six Nations (four defeats) but regained confidence this summer against weaker nations, won 49-17 (28-0, mt) in Badu.e, thanks to tries by Brex, Bruno (double), Ioane (double) and Cannone, while the Samoans pulled off a good final half hour, with three tries caught by Seuteni, Paia’aua and McFarland. It’s supposed to be more complicated next week for Italy, against Australia… For its part, Scotland (ranked 9th in the world) welcomed Fiji (ranked 12th) at Murrayfield, imposing the 15th by Thistle with a score of 28-12. However, it only led 14-12 at the break, after tries from Turner and Hastings, against tries from Tuicuvu and Rotuisolia. But the Scots managed to achieve a good second half, helped by the opponent’s indiscipline (two yellow cards in the second half), scored by Van der Merwe and White. A good start, before challenging the New Zealand ogre in a week…