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 Humdinger Tongan injury-time drop goal wins the day
Posted: Tuesday October 12, 1999 08:28 AM
LEICESTER, England (CNN/SI) -- Italy and Tonga both found fortune to be a fickle mistress, as they both led their Group B match before Tonga pulled off the 28-25 win in injury-time. Fullback Sateki Tu'ipulotu struck a dramatic drop goal from inside his own half in the dying seconds of the match to prove triumphant for Tonga in the closest match of the tournament so far. Just seconds after Italian flyhalf Diego Dominguez seemed to have snatched a 25-25 draw for Italy, the Tongan fullback brought the Welford Road crowd to its feet with one of the most astonishing finishes of any World Cup game. The feat capped a superb individual performance from Tu'ipulotu who also scored a try and struck two penalties and two conversions. The result brought more disappointment for Italy, who will take in the newly revamped Five Nations, soon to be Six Nations championship next year. They have had a miserable tournament so far. Last week they were destroyed 67-7 by England. On Sunday they were involved in a match which turned three times in the last five minutes. Just before Dominguez's sixth penalty, a try by substitute Isileli Fantani looked to have earned Tonga a 25-22 victory. The Tongans, however, deserved their victory having outscored the Italians 3-1 in tries. Winger Taunaholo Taufahema also went over in the first half. The Italians revamped their team and scored their points from a second-half try by hooker Alessandro Moscardi and six penalties and a conversion from the boot of flyhalf Dominguez who had an outstanding match with 20 points. After their destruction by England at Twickenham last weekend, Italy made seven changes to their line-up. In the early stages they put the Tongans under pressure and Dominguez kicked two long-range penalties to put the Italians 6-0 ahead after 17 minutes. But Tonga, who made New Zealand work hard for their 45-9 victory last weekend, showed more flair with the ball in their hands. Winger Taufahema produced a brilliant side-step to burst through the middle of the Italian backline to score Tonga's first try under the posts in the 26th minute. Just five minutes later Tu'ipulotu intercepted a pass inside from his opposite number Matt Pini near the halfway line and sprinted 45 metres down the left wing to score. The Tongan fullback could not convert the try but added two penalties to give the Southern Hemisphere side an 18-12 lead at the interval. All the Italian points in the first half had come from the boot of Dominguez with four penalties. Dominquez narrowed the gap to just three points with another penalty early in the second half. The Italians took the lead in the 54th minute when hooker Moscardi dived over after a maul just two meters from the Tongan line. Dominguez converted to put the Italians 22-18 ahead after 54 minutes. Italy should have scored again six minutes later when they had a huge overlap 10 metres from the Tongan line but Moscardi failed to get his pass away left to four backs queuing up to score. Then the real drama began. The warm atmosphere at Welford Road's compact ground contrasted sharply with the South Africa-Spain game at Murrayfield earlier in the day which was played in front of thousands of empty seats. Even though the crowd was just more than 10,000, they created the noisy ambiance of a competitive club game.
Reuters contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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