Australia beat Italy 57-10 to end Schmidt era with win

Australia snapped a six-match losing streak after dismantling a depleted Italy 57-10 in the Nations Championship on Saturday, ensuring coach Joe Schmidt ended his unsuccessful tenure on a winning note. 

The home side ran in nine tries to two in front of 19,268 fans at Perth's HBF Park, with lock Josh Canham bagging a hat-trick.  

Schmidt will now hand over to Les Kiss, ending an underwhelming stint where he won 12 of his 31 Tests in charge since assuming control from Eddie Jones.

The victory did ensure the New Zealander avoided the ignominy of finishing with the worst winning percentage of any Wallabies coach in the professional era.

It gave Australia their first win of the Nations Championship and ended a prolonged form slump, where they had lost nine of their past 10 Tests. 

"It was awesome, and I think those three tries were because of how well that forward pack went tonight," said player-of-the-match Canham. 

"I didn't have to do too much. It was a metre each try, so yeah, it's all the forward pack.

"We put in a lot of hard work the past three weeks. It's been frustrating to not get the results the last couple of weeks, but to put it together tonight, it feels a lot better."

After costly fade-outs against Ireland and France, the Wallabies' red-hot start ensured their second-half frailties were not really put to the test.

A rampaging Australian forward pack outmuscled Italy, scoring six tries in a one-sided first-half to lead 38-5 at the interval. 

The injury-ravaged Italians succumbed to their third straight defeat in the competition, having previously been beaten by Japan and New Zealand.

Their task was made harder without head coach Gonzalo Quesada, who was suspended for the match for criticising the referee and Nations Championship scheduling following the heavy loss to the All Blacks.

"Gutted. Obviously very disappointed with the result and the performance we put in," said Italy captain Michele Lamaro.

"I think we played a very good first half against the All Blacks last week, but apart from that, we've been pretty poor against Japan, pretty poor today, and the second half against the All Blacks wasn't us.

"We haven't been able to put in a performance we were proud of, and that's the most disappointing." 

- Improved Wallabies -

Italy had entered the match with confidence having beaten the Wallabies in consecutive matches, including a 26-19 triumph in Udine late last year. 

They were immediately on the defensive with a pumped-up Wallabies opening the scoring in the fifth minute when Canham barrelled over the line. 

The Wallabies' knack of starting matches quickly was again on show as Tom Wright weaved through a tentative Italian defensive line to dot down.

Brandon Paenga-Amosa got on the end of  a patient move as the Wallabies stormed to a 19-0 lead. 

A rare foray into attack proved fruitful for Italy in the 20th minute when captain Michele Lamaro scored in the left corner. 

The Wallabies regained control with Canham scoring twice before Angus Bell and Len Ikitau put the finishing touches on a dominant opening half. 

"We had a lot of positive moments in a row. Our discipline was improved, and we've been preparing hard," said Australia captain Harry Wilson

The Wallabies came out of the blocks sluggishly with Monty Ioane dashing over the line to restore hope for Italy. 

Canham stormed over the line in the 52nd minute to complete his hat-trick and Italy's wretched night continued when substitute Marco Riccioni was red carded for getting involved from the bench in a melee that spilled over the touchline. 

tl/dh

© Agence France-Presse