The visitors have had a tough old run in to the World Cup and are likely to find the going tough against what could well be an understrength yet still solid talian outfit.
Italy v Romania
Saturday 19 August
Stadio Riviera Della Palme
Italy 1/200 | Draw 22/1 | Romania 16/1
As touched on in the introduction, Romania have really struggled during their warm-up games. The Eastern Europeans suffered a 17-31 defeat to a United States side that failed to qualify for the World Cup and then went on to lose 56-6 to Georgia this past weekend. And while these games offer an opportunity for coaching set-ups to settle on tactics and starting line-ups, the amount of points Romania shifted in the two fixtures will be a massive worry for their brain’s trust.
Like their opponents for Saturday, Italy are yet to win a warm-up game but they have shown some positive signs running Scotland close at end of July 25-13 and then giving an admittedly understrength Ireland side a run at the start of August (33-17).
Italy fielded close to full strength sides for the aforementioned fixtures but they’re likely to give their fringe players a run here against a Romanian outfit who shouldn’t give them too many problems.
With the handicap likely to open up round the 33-point mark, I’m leaning towards the visitors staying within it mainly due to Italy likely fielding a second-string side.
