By Country / Italy

Cripes, the Wallabies nearly had a shocker...

Quade Cooper saved Australia's blushes with a debut try eight minutes from time to see off the gritty Italians. With the scores locked at 20 apiece, the New Zealand-born 20-year-old's quick step danced through a busy crowd to seal a unflattering victory.

Sounds like quite an eventful match?

It wasn't one of the weekend's finest but there's something endearing about watching Italy mix it with world rugby's big boys. Lachie Turner and Mirco Begamasco shared earlier tries while pocket-rocket Matt Giteau's booming left boot kicked 17 points for the Wallabies.

Nick Mallett has named his 30-man squad for November's home Test matches against Australia, Argentina and the Pacific Islands.

Sergio Parisse, Mauro Bergamasco and Marco Bortolami feature but there is no place for heavyweight prop Martin Castrogiovanni

Forwards: Matias Aguero (Saracens), Robert Barbieri (Treviso), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais), Marco Bortolami (Gloucester), Carlo Antonio Del Fava (Ulster), Santiago Dellape (Toulon), Carlo Festuccia (Racing Metro), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Calvisano), Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro), Carlos Nieto (Gloucester), Fabio Ongaro (Saracens), Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais/), Salvatore Perugini (Toulouse), Tommaso Reato (Rovigo), Josh Sole (Viadana), Alessandro Zanni (Calvisano)

Backs: Andrea Bacchetti (Rovigo), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais), Gonzalo Canale (Clermont), Pablo Canavosio (Viadana), Gonzalo Garcia (Calvisano), Andrea Marcato (Treviso), Andrea Masi (Biarritz), Luke McLean (Calvisano), Luciano Orquera (Brive), Riccardo Pavan (Parma), Simon Picone (Treviso), Matteo Pratichetti (Calvisano), Kaine Robertson (Viadana), Giulio Toniolatti (Capitolina Rome)

Stick that down your southern hemisphere trumpets. Despite dominating the IRB rankings, forcing the IRBs hand to radically change the game, the southern hemisphere has only one nomination in the IRB Player of the Year awards.

Dan Carter's a pretty strong candidate mind you, and stands out as the early favourite, although Welsh wing-wizard, Shane Williams could trump him on the outside after a record-breaking 2008.

Three captains, Ryan Jones (Wales), Mike Blair (Scotland) and the outstanding Italian Sergio Parisse make up the list, ahead of the awards ceremony in London on November 23.

Argentina (12) 12
Pens: Hernandez 2, Bosch 2

Italy (3) 13
Try: Ghiraldini Con: Marcato Pens: Marcato 2

Leonardo Ghiraldini's last gasp converted try scored the Italians a dramatic 13-12 victory over Argentina.

The hooker powered over after several patient surges from the barbaric Azzurri pack, from which Andrea Marcato duly stepped up to seal the sundries and spark emotional celebrations for a gallant Italy outfit.

Bad news for Juan Martin Hernandez after the fly-half broke his wrist that rules him out for a month, but this is the latest setback for the Pumas under new coach Santiago Phelan, who must be gazing earnestly onto the horizon for when the rocky road with life after Loffreda will smooth out.