History of rugby union matches between Australia and Italy

Australia and Italy have played each other at rugby union a total of 18 matches, all won by Australia.^[1]

History[]

Australia first played Italy on their way home from European tours in the 1970s, though they were not given full international status. The first encounter was in 1973 when Australia ran up 59 points to 21, but the second was the closest ever, with Italy losing by a single point 16-17. Officially the first test between the two countries was in 1983, following an Italian tour of Australia in 1981 in which the visitors acquitted themselves well against secondary opposition. They toured again in 1986 and played their first test match away from home. Two years later the Italians were soundly beaten at the end of the 1988 Wallabies tour, but their next tour of Australia in 1994 saw a big improvement with all state matches won and an unlucky defeat in the Brisbane test match. Since then results have generally been convincing wins to Australia, but the one in 2012 was close with Italy unlucky to lose by 3 points.

World Cup History[]

In 2011 they met for the first time in a World Cup match at the group stage in Auckland with Australia starting their campaign towards the semifinals with a 32-6 win.

Summary[]

Note: Summary below reflects test results by both teams.

Overall[]

Records[]

Note: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.

Results[]

No.	Date	Venue	Score	Winner	Competition
1	22 October 1983	Stadio Comunale Mario Battaglini, Rovigo	7 – 29	Australia	1983 Australia rugby union tour of Italy and France
2	1 June 1986	Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane	39 – 18	Australia	1986 Italy rugby union tour of Australia
3	3 December 1988	Stadio Flaminio, Rome	6 – 55	Australia	1988 Australia rugby union tour of England, Scotland and Italy
4	18 June 1994	Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane	23 – 20	Australia	1994 Italy rugby union tour of Australia
5	25 June 1994	Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne	20 – 7	Australia
6	23 October 1996	Stadio Plebiscito, Padua	18 – 40	Australia	1996 Australia rugby union tour of Europe
7	23 November 2002	Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genova	3 – 34	Australia	2002 Australia rugby union tour
8	25 June 2005	Docklands Stadium, Melbourne	69 – 21	Australia	2005 Italy rugby union tour
9	11 November 2006	Stadio Flaminio, Rome	18 – 25	Australia	2006 Australia rugby union tour of Europe
10	8 November 2008	Stadio Euganeo, Padova	20 – 30	Australia	2008 Australia rugby union tour
11	13 June 2009	Canberra Stadium, Canberra	31 – 8	Australia	2009 June rugby union tests
12	20 June 2009	Docklands Stadium, Melbourne	34 – 12	Australia
13	20 November 2010	Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence	14 – 32	Australia	2010 end-of-year rugby union internationals
14	11 September 2011	North Harbour Stadium, Auckland	32 – 6	Australia	2011 Rugby World Cup Pool Stage
15	24 November 2012	Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence	19 – 22	Australia	2012 end-of-year rugby union internationals
16	9 November 2013	Stadio Olimpico di Torino, Turin	20 – 50	Australia	2013 end-of-year rugby union internationals
17	24 June 2017	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	40 – 27	Australia	2017 June rugby union tests
18	17 November 2018	Stadio Euganeo, Padova	7 – 26	Australia	2018 end-of-year rugby union internationals

XV Results[]

Below is a list of matches that Italy has awarded matches test match status by virtue of awarding caps, but Australia did not award caps.

Date	Venue	Score	Winner	Comments
21 November 1973	Stadio Tommaso Fattori, L'Aquila	21 – 59	Australia	Not considered full internationals by Australia
4 November 1976	Arena Civica, Milan	15 – 16	Australia

List of series[]

Year	Australia	Italy	Series winner
1994	2	0	Australia
	2	0	Australia

References[]

External links[]