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PARIS - Italy will need to improve for their rugby World Cup pool C decider against Scotland, Italy coach Pierre Berbizier said today after his team struggled to overcome Portugal.
Berbizier praised the resilient, amateur Portuguese, crushed 83-0 by his side 11 months ago in a World Cup
qualifier, after Italy's 31-5 victory in which two tries in the last eight minutes flattered the winners.
"I've seen a very good Portugal team and I have to congratulate them on the match they played. As for Italy, I'm going to have to work a lot to improve (the team) before the match against Scotland," Berbizier said.
"Portugal defended very well and aggressively, we didn't know how to impose our pressure and just could not find the solutions.
"It's going to be a very tough match. Scotland played really well against Romania and we will have to play to our strengths."
New Zealand and Scotland have 10 points after two matches before their meeting in Edinburgh on Monday (NZ time). Italy, beaten by the All Blacks, have eight points with their showdown with the Scots to come on September 30.
Italy captain Marco Bortolami said his sin-binning for punching early in the match was an error by the touch judge.
"Unfortunately we didn't play as well as we wanted. Portugal are very physical and they play with a lot of intensity," he said.
But the lock dismissed talk of a lack of motivation in the squad.
"Apart from the first match we have not been lacking in will, we need to find answers on the pitch but we are not ashamed in any way about our efforts and I would like to put a stop to this talk, it is so far from reality," he said.
Portugal coach Tomaz Morais was concentrating on the positives after another impressive effort from his team.
"For us this is something of a victory, we are happy with the rugby we played and Italy couldn't get the four tries they wanted," he said.
"Italy are a very experienced side but once again we played well in the first half but made some errors in the second and at this level you get punished for them.
"We came to the World Cup to launch these young players as the future of Portuguese rugby and I think they played very well today."
Portugal, who have conceded 27 tries in the tournament, managed to keep up a record of having scored one themselves in each match when lock David Penalva went over in the first half.
- REUTERS
