A Forward Pack Writes Joe Schmidt’s Farewell Story
Six matches without a win had followed Australia into Round 3 of the Nations Championship, and two of those results (defeats to Ireland and France) had come in this tournament alone. Then, in Joe Schmidt’s final Test as head coach, the Wallabies scored nine tries and put 57 points on Italy, their heaviest Test tally since 2017 and the largest margin they have managed over the Azzurri since the early 2000s. The story of this match is not really about Italy at all. It is about a pack that finally translated pressure into points, on the one night it mattered most for the man leaving the job.
The Wallabies’ Forward Advantage
Strip away the scoreline and the pattern of Australia’s afternoon is unmistakable; this was a victory manufactured from close range. Six of the Wallabies’ nine tries were scored by forwards: Josh Canham’s hat-trick, Harry Wright’s early score, Brandon Paenga-Amosa from close in, and Angus Bell finishing another attacking sequence. The try that opened the scoring, through Canham in the third minute, came after what can only be described as sustained Australian pressure. Paenga-Amosa’s accurate lineout throwing helped give Australia a reliable attacking platform, with Canham a frequent target in the air. Canham finished as Australia’s leading scorer and was named Player of the Match.
The shape of the tries tells its own story. Australia scored from range through structured pressure rather than broken play, working through the phases and wearing Italy down until the door opened close to the line.
The 30-Minute Blitz
By half-time Australia led 38–5, and the damage was almost entirely inflicted in a punishing opening stretch. Canham’s third-minute opener was followed five minutes later by Wright’s try out wide. Early Italian ill-discipline helped sustain Wallabies pressure, and Paenga-Amosa’s close-range finish, converted by Ryan Lonergan, made it 18–0 after eleven minutes. Italy’s first real foothold came through captain Michele Lamaro in the 19th minute, but Australia had scoreboard control to spare, and Canham’s second try in the 26th minute and Bell’s in the 30th restored the gap before Italy could build on it.
Len Ikitau crossed just before half-time to stretch Australia’s lead to 38 points, but Italy responded almost immediately after the second half kicked off through Monty Ioane. Italy were capable of finding the line, as seen with Lamaro and Ioane, but each response was quickly cancelled out by another Australian score. Six tries conceded before the break, against two scored, is the clearest measurable evidence of a side that could not convert its pressure into a sustained period of control.
A Hat-Trick to Remember
Australia did not need to press as urgently after the interval, but the second half still had its own story to tell. Eleven minutes in, Canham completed his hat-trick — becoming, in the process, the first Wallabies lock to score a Test hat-trick, and turning an already dominant afternoon into a historic one. It was the kind of finish that stamped his name on the match regardless of what followed.
What followed was a coda rather than a contest. Billy Pollard added an eighth try in the 63rd minute after coming off the bench, and Ben Donaldson (playing his way back from a calf injury that had threatened his involvement in the match altogether) scored and converted Australia’s ninth try in the final minute, a fitting way to mark his return. Italy, for their part, could not add to their tally after Ioane’s try; their resistance, evident in patches during the first half, did not survive the accumulating weight of Australia’s forward effort.
A Farewell Written in Milestones
Schmidt’s exit from the Wallabies job was confirmed before the tournament began, which meant this was always going to be his final match in charge regardless of the result. That the result turned out to be Australia’s biggest Test victory in years gives the occasion a symmetry that will not be lost on anyone connected with the campaign. Speaking afterwards, Schmidt said it had been satisfying to finish with a performance that reflected the work the players had put in and the progress the squad had made through the championship, ending his tenure with a convincing victory. The afternoon also delivered Australia’s first competition points of the tournament and ended the six-match losing run that had shadowed the squad into Perth.
The match carried other milestones beyond the coaching change. Miles Amatosero made his Test debut from the bench, contributing to a dominant second-half performance without any significant individual errors. Canham’s hat-trick stands as a historical first for a Wallabies lock. The 57-point haul was Australia’s highest Test score since they beat Japan in 2017, underlining just how far this performance sat outside their recent norm.
Italy’s Afternoon of Diminishing Returns
For Italy, the story of this match is less about individual tactical failures than about scale. Gonzalo Quesada’s side entered the fixture without a win in the championship and left it having conceded six tries before half-time alone. Lamaro and Ioane each showed why they remain central to Italy’s attacking hopes, scoring the team’s only two tries and, in Lamaro’s case, continuing to lead the side’s defensive effort even as Australia’s pressure mounted. But the team-level picture was of a side unable to turn possession into points and increasingly overwhelmed at the set piece and close to their own line.
Lamaro, speaking after the match, emphasised Italy’s defensive shortcomings and the team’s inability to maintain its performance level across the full 80 minutes. His remarks, reflected the need for greater consistency rather than offering a verbatim assessment of the defeat. Nothing suggests that message was new to this campaign, but few performances will have illustrated it as starkly as conceding six first-half tries to a team that had lost its previous six Tests.
Own the Breakdown
A single match against a winless opponent will not by itself answer the questions that followed Australia into this championship, and the record does not support treating it as proof that the Wallabies’ broader problems have been solved. What it does support, is that Australia’s forward pack was at its most effective when it found rhythm at the lineout and close to the line. They sustained pressure until it became points, from Canham’s opening try through to Donaldson’s late finish.
For Schmidt, it is a victory lap built on exactly the kind of collective forward performance his sides have long been associated with. For incoming coach Les Kiss, taking over a squad that has just ended a six-match losing streak with its highest score in nearly a decade, it is a considerably brighter starting point than the tournament’s first two rounds suggested was likely.
Australia
Starting: 1 Angus Bell, 2 Brandon Paenga‑Amosa, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 4 Josh Canham, 5 Jeremy Williams, 6 Rob Valetini, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 9 Ryan Lonergan, 10 Declan Meredith, 11 Harry Potter, 12 Len Ikitau, 13 Joseph‑Aukuso Sua’ali’i, 14 Max Jorgensen, 15 Tom Wright
Impact: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 James Slipper, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Miles Amatosero, 20 Fraser McReight, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Filipo Daugunu
Italy
Starting: 1 Muhamed Hasa, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Giulio Marini, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Riccardo Favretto, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 8 Ross Vintcent, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Monty Ioane, 12 Paolo Odogwu, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 14 Louis Lynagh, 15 Lorenzo Pani
Impact: 16 Pablo Dimcheff, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Alessandro Ortombina, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Giacomo Da Re, 23 Leonardo Marin
Venue: HBF Park, Perth (Boorloo)
Kick‑off: 18:10 local (AWST)
Attendance: 19,268 (94% capacity)
Match Officials
Referee: Christophe Ridley (England)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (England), Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)
FPRO: Leo Colgan (Ireland)
