FULL-TIME: ITALY 52-8 NAMIBIA
TRY, ITALY, ODOGWU! 52-8 : Odogwu scores in the corner after more tired Namibian play, where they failed to kick the ball out. They have themselves to blame for the last try! Surprise surprise the conversion is OVER!
TRY, ITALY, ZULIANI! 45-8: Zuliani punishes a tired Namibian defence as he grabs a lose ball to sprint away from the defenders. Great work! The conversion is good!
CONVERSION, ITALY, ALLAN! 38-8: Allan extends the lead!
TRY, ITALY, FAIVA! 36-8: Great work by the Italians on the break and two smart long passes into space leads to the scrambling defence not being able to stop Faiva!
Ioane now runs across the field on his 22m line just looking for space before he loses his footing trying to get around Viviers. WOW! Italy then secure a penalty as the Namibian failed to wrap his arms around.
A cross-kick meant for Ioane into loads of space bounces and changes direction before Namibia earn a scrum.
The line-out is secured and they earn another penalty. They go for another line-out but this time Italy hold it up. Great work and again opportunity wasted!
Namibia waste it again with a poor throw but luckily Italy go offside five minutes from their own line. Namibia feed a line-out in the corner and
After a period of scrappy play Namibia waste an opportunity under a penalty advantage. The ball goes out and Italy secure the line-out to make good ground. Namibia get it back with a breakdown penalty. They find touch.
NO TRY, ITALY, RICCIONI! 31-8: Italy drive after the line-out before going short. They recycle the ball and then Riccioni SCORES after forcing himself over! However the TMO is involved and points to an Italian knock-on in the build-up.
After the second water break Italy secure a scrum after Namibia leave the line-out early. It leads to a scrum penalty and they find touch.
CONVERSION, ITALY, ALLAN! 31-3: Allan converts and Italy in control now after that great Ioane run to set up the try.!
TRY, ITALY, CAPUOZZO! 29-8: Ioane into a gap before going wide. Great handling at speed by Italy before Capuozzo SMASHES OVER IN THE CORNER.
After a few resets at the scrum Namibia come away with it before a kick-through forces Ioane to hold on for a Namibian penalty. They take a quick tap and Italy slows the ball down. Great work Italy to secure the ball at teh breakdown.
Good defensive pressure from Italy as they turn a ball over under pressure.
CONVERSION, ITALY, ALLAN! 24-8: Allan adds the extras.
TRY, ITALY, LAMB! 22-8: Italy clear a line-out before rumbling and driving closer to the line. Despite good Namibian defensive efforts Lamb STORMS OVER!
Allan almost fumbles the ball while loking directly into the Sun. He is lucky to control it.
Another early handling error by Italy and after then frustration leads to a ball being thrown away and Namibia receive a penalty.
Kick-off! We are back underway in the second half.
HALF-TIME: ITALY 17-8 NAMIBIA: An entertaining half comes to and end and the Italian deserve their lead but Namibia have posted a few warnings and may well come up with more scoring opportunities in the second half.
Italy peel away from a line-out on halfway and make their way to the 22. GREAT WORK by Mouton to pluck a pass out of the air and there ends an Italian attack! Obstruction by Italy and Swanepoel sends a long kick WIDE!
Nine more Namibian phases before Swanepoel swings it wide and it flies into touch!
After a few resets at the scrum Namibia come away from it and clear it into touch. Italy mess up their line-out and a timely steal by Namibia. Great work Conradie.
The penalties at the breakdown are mounting against Namibia. Italy find touch and then drive forward before they mess it up with a knock-on.
Namibia with a line-out on the Italian 22. They go wide before changing direction and a handling error let them down.
Italy clear the set-piece and find touch inside the Namibian 22. The Africans secure the line-out and find a good clearance kick.
Namibia back to 15 men and Swanepoel finds a good touch following the restart.
It's a water break as Swanepoel sends the conversion wide.
TRY, NAMIBIA, MOUTON! 17-8: Namibia secure the scrum and keep it tight before a loop pass finds Mouton, who SPRINTS TO THE CORNER AND SCORES!
Namibia come with 14 men and force a knock-on by Italy on the Italian 22.
CONVERSION, ITALY, ALLAN! 17-3: Allan converts yet again!
TRY, ITALY, GARBISI! 14-3: Italy at it again and Garbisi into a gap to take advantage of his strenght and SCORE!
CONVERSION, ITALY, ALLAN! 10-3: Allan converts!
TRY, ITALY, CANNONE! 8-3: It's rinse and repeat for Italy and this time Cannone STORMS OVER!
YELLOW CARD, NAMIBIA, VAN JAARSVELD! 3-3: Italy rumble after a line-out and drive forwards before securing a penalty and Van Jaarsveld is sin-binned.
PENALTY, ITALY, ALLAN! 3-3: The line-out is secured and after five phases they secure another breakdown penalty. Namibia are warned. It's LEVEL!
Italy into a gap and have the momentum before a por pass let them down and Namibia turn it over. Italy then secure a penalty at the breakdown and finds touch NOW!
PENALTY, NAMIBIA, SWANEPOEL! 0-3: Namibia with 10 precise phases before receiving an offside penalty inside the Italian 22. They go for goal and Swanepoel converts!
The first penalty go to Italy on their own 22 and they fail to find touch.
Kick-off! We are underway here in Saint-Etienne.
Match officials; Our referee is Andrew Brace from Ireland. He will be assisted by Paul Williams from New Zealand and his compatriot Chris Busby. The TMO Joy Neville also hails form Ireland.
Namibia: 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Gerswin Mouton, 13 Johan Deysel (captain), 12 Danco Burger, 11 JC Greyling, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Damian Stevens, 8 Johan Retief, 7 Richard Hardwick, 6 Wian Conradie, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Des Sethie. Replacements: 16 Jason Benade, 17 Louis van der Westhuizen, 18 Casper Viviers, 19 Tiaan de Klerk, 20 Prince !Gaoseb, 21 Jacques Theron, 22 Andre van der Berg, 23 Le Roux Malan.
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti. Replacements: 16 Epalahame Faiva, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 David Sisi, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Martin Page-Relo, 22 Paolo Odogwu, 23 Pierre Bruno.
This is Namibia's sixth appearance at the tournament but they have been unable to register a win thus far. Can they pull off an unlikely upset?
These teams both had warm-up games over the last few weeks. Italy beat Japan 42-12 in their last game before the tournament, while Namibia pulled off a narrow 28-26 win over Chile.
In that game which is also a Group A encounter France surprised New Zealand by 27-13.
This is only the second match of this World Cup after th opening clash last night between the hosts France and New Zealand.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Etienne for our coverage of this Rugby World Cup Group A clash between Italy and Namibia.
