A last-minute converted try by replacement Leonardo Ghiraldini earned Italy a 13-12 victory over Argentina to complete a remarkable second half fightback where they scored 10 unanswered points.

The match was not a great spectacle and it was the refereeing of Matt Goddard, who gave 30 penalties during the match, which caught the eye the most.

A lot was expected from Juan Martin Hernandez for Argentina and when he went off after 20 minutes with an injured wrist it was a major blow as they had lost a recognised kicker.

After nearly 40 minutes of efforts, captain Italian captain Sergio Parisse asked Andrea Marcato to go for goal and he duly kicked the ball between the uprights.

However Italy trailed 12-3 at the break because of two penalties each to Argentina's Hernandez and Marcelo Bosch, the final points Argentina were to get on the board as they did not manage a single score of any description after the interval.

Marcato brought Italy within six points of Argentina when he kicked over his second effort at goal on 50 minutes. Bosch had two opportunities to regain the nine-point advantage but twice failed to manage it.

Argentina paid dearly for that as they were still a converted try from victory and Ghiraldini got the score after a scrum and several drives forward, before Marcato, under a great deal of pressure, kicked the conversion to spark celebrations in the Italy camp.

Parisse said afterwards: "It was a very tough, hard game but there was great work from the Italian forwards and we fought right to the end in a real battle. We can come away from this very happy."

Bosch said for his part: "We made a lot of errors which can really cost you at this level of the game and losing Hernandez was also a major blow."

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