Italy ended their summer tour with a convincing 42-14 win over Japan in Sapporo on Sunday and the tour as a whole has taken them another step forward according to manager Gonzalo Quesada.
Italy raced into a 24-0 lead after 35 minutes, with Ange Capuozzo, Martin Page-Relo and Andrea Zambonin all running in converted tries after Page-Relo opened the scoring with a penalty.
Japan hit back with a try from Dylan Riley at the end of the first half, with Italy a man down after Ross Vincent received a yellow card just after the half-hour mark.
Three minutes into the second half, Riley was in once more after he intercepted a pass from Paolo Garbisi.
Rikaya Mitsuda converted again and Italy's lead was reduced to 24-14 but they regained control with two penalties from Page-Relo before finishing off in style with another two tries scored by Alessandro Garbisi and Vintcent.
Quesada was pleased with his side's performance, apart from the tries conceded, and they also had another two yellow cards in the second half, with wing Jacopo Trullo and hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi booked.
"Two incredible tries (by Japan) but born from two situations in which we were attacking. When Japan tried to get past our defence it never passed," Quesada told reporters.
"Discipline was really an issue. I didn't understand a lot of free kicks against us but I don't want to talk about the referee.
"However, there are some positive signs. We played the most athletic team in the world for 30 minutes with one less player, and we won."
POSITIVE FINISH
Quesada's side lost their opening match with Samoa before bouncing back in a win over Tonga and the victory over Eddie Jones' Japan gives a positive shine to their tour.
"We arrived in Tokyo after an 11-hour flight, trained for two days at 45 degrees before taking another plane to Sapporo against a team that plays at an incredible pace," added Quesada.
"In these conditions it was an important tour for us, it was a further step forward as a group. From the outside you can only see the games, but from the inside we saw all the difficulties that we had to accept."
Garbisi left the field on a stretcher after suffering a blow to the head but Quesada said he was fine afterwards and that the priority now for everyone would be rest.
"I don't even know where I'm going on holidays, my wife booked everything," he added with a laugh.
"Joking aside, my job doesn't end today. I have to talk to the franchises so that the boys can rest in the best way, but I'm worried especially about the guys who play abroad and won't have a big rest period, that's a problem."