Rugby World Cup 2015: Italy secure third place after Romania win

Italy's Tommaso Allan runs in to score a try against Romania. Photo / AP

Italy ended its Rugby World Cup campaign with an entertaining 32-22 win against a valiant Romania today to secure third place in Pool D and automatically qualify for the 2019 tournament.

Romania made the biggest comeback in World Cup history when it rallied from 15-0 down to beat Canada 17-15 in midweek, but ran out of time for more heroics.

But the Oaks did brilliantly to stop a landslide defeat, having trailed 22-3 at halftime and then 29-3 when No. 8 Alessandro Zanni burrowed through a gap six minutes into the second half.

Scrumhalf Edoardo Gori, right winger Leonardo Sarto, and flyhalf Tommaso Allan touched down in the first half.

If Romania's players could market their refusal to accept defeat, they would be overnight millionaires, and they roared back with a vengeance with three tries in the last 15 minutes.

Romania's rolling maul finally kicked into gear, resulting in a try from replacement left winger Adrian Apostol, who took a feed from No. 8 Daniel Carpo and dotted over.

That made it 29-10 with 13 minutes remaining and, just to be safe, Allan took a penalty kick in front of the posts, drawing some jeers from the try-hungry crowd at Sandy Park who wanted Italy to run the ball.

But there was more at stake than entertainment value, and the Italians were right to be cautious in light of Romania's fine flourish.

Lock Valentin Poparlan barged his way over for a try he was not even aware he had scored, until it was awarded following one of several television referrals that stalled an otherwise flowing game.

Then, with one minute remaining, Apostol capped off a sweeping move with another try down the left, prompting a jubilant reaction from him, and an even bigger one from coach Lynn Howells.

But it was too late.

Italy finished behind Six Nations rivals Ireland and France - who played their pool decider late Sunday - and Romania ended in fourth spot.

In a one-sided first half, Italy had two more tries ruled out for knock-ons.

If Romania had only started the tournament the way it finished, perhaps Howell's teams would be booking tickets in 2019 to Tokyo.

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