ROME (AP) — Tommaso Allan's comeback was confirmed when he was picked by Italy to play against Argentina in their autumn rugby opener this weekend in Udine.
Allan stepped away from test rugby after the first game of the Six Nations in February, the 27-24 loss to England in Rome. Italy's record scorer in Rugby World Cups was tired and granted a break to focus on his club and family.
In the 80-cap fullback's absence, Italy enjoyed its best Six Nations, beating Scotland and Wales and drawing with France.
“I followed them on TV,” Allan said. "On the one hand it was difficult to watch them from a distance, on the other I rejoiced for the results they achieved. For me and my family this choice has done a lot of good. I also think my way of playing rugby has benefited. I focused on helping (Perpignan) stay in the Top 14.”
Refreshed, he called coach Gonzalo Quesada in September to make himself available.
“For me (returning to Italy) it's like the first day of school,” Allan said.
Italy has made four changes for Saturday's test from its last outing, a 42-14 win over Japan in Sapporo in July.
Wing Monty Ioane was back, on a three-test try-scoring run. Flanker Sebastian Negri and lock Federico Ruzza replaced the unavailable Ross Vintcent and Andrea Zambonin, and hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi has rotated in.
Beside Allan, the reserves also feature the return of Harlequins lock Dino Lamb, who last appeared at the World Cup a year ago.
Italy has not beaten Argentina since 2008, and not at home since 1998.
Argentina made six changes after losing the Rugby Championship decider to South Africa 48-7 in September.
Veteran forwards Francisco Gomez Kodela and Matias Alemanno were also recalled as reserves. The 39-year-old tighthead prop Gomez Kodela hasn't played for the Pumas since the World Cup a year ago. The lock Alemanno missed the Rugby Championship.
The Pumas have brought in Miami midfielder Matias Orlando, Clermont wing Bautista Delguy, and clubless scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou, and promoted lock Franco Molina, center Lucio Cinti and fullback Juan Cruz Mallia off the bench from the loss in Mbombela.
They are touring without the injured Marcos Kremer (knee), Tomas Lavanini (ankle), Santiago Carreras (calf) and Santiago Chocobares. Also, former captain Pablo Matera was suspended from the match but has not travelled with the group.
Molina replacing Lavanini was the only change to the pack.
Mallia at fullback is expected to also cover flyhalf Tomas Albornoz.
Gomez Kodela played all seven matches at the World Cup in France and has powered on this season for Stade Francais.
"He never told us he was going to step aside,” coach Felipe Contepomi said on Thursday. "Any Argentine with a valid passport and in active service is eligible.
“In June we talked about looking at the short, medium and long term. Having Frankie may be a short term, but we think it's the best thing for the team and to develop the game we want.”
The Pumas will also play Ireland and France but chose not to pick any of their four uncapped players, though one-cap Vannes flanker Bautista Pedemonte was on the bench.
Argentina last played Italy in 2021, winning 37-16 in Treviso.
Lineups:
Italy: Ange Capuozzo, Louis Lynagh, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Monty Ioane, Paolo Garbisi, Martin Page-Relo; Lorenzo Cannone, Michele Lamaro (captain), Sebastian Negri, Federico Ruzza, Niccolo Cannone, Marco Riccioni, Gianmarco Lucchesi, Mirco Spagnolo. Reserves: Giacomo Nicotera, Danilo Fischetti, Simone Ferrari, Dino Lamb, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Garbisi, Tommaso Allan, Marco Zanon.
Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia, Rodrigo Isgro, Lucio Cinti, Matias Orlando, Bautista Delguy, Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Bertranou; Joaquin Oviedo, Santiago Grondona, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Pedro Rubiolo, Franco Molina, Joel Sclavi, Julian Montoya (captain), Thomas Gallo. Reserves: Ignacio Ruiz, Ignacio Calles, Francisco Gomez Kodela, Matias Alemanno, Bautista Pedemonte, Gonzalo Garcia, Matias Moroni, Santiago Cordero.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - Italy's Tommaso Allan kicks a conversion during the Rugby World Cup Pool A match between France and Italy at the OL Stadium in Lyon, France, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's name wasn't on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris' resounding defeat as his loss too.
As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory, some of the vice president's backers are expressing frustration that Biden's decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party's surrender of the White House.
“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”
Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will affect communities for years to come.
But having run four years ago against Trump to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden's priorities.
“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”
The president on Wednesday stayed out of sight for the second straight day, making congratulatory calls to Democratic lawmakers who won downballot races and to Trump. Biden invited Trump for a White House meeting, and the president-elect accepted.
Biden is set to deliver a Rose Garden address Thursday about the election. He issued a statement shortly after Harris delivered her concession speech Wednesday, praising Harris for running an “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”
Some high-ranking Democrats, including three advisers to the Harris campaign, expressed deep frustration with Biden for failing to recognize earlier in the election cycle that he was not up to the challenge. The advisers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign in July, weeks after an abysmal debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to serve as a credible nominee.
But polling long beforehand showed that many Americans worried about his age. Some 77% of Americans said in August 2023 that Biden was too old to be effective for four more years, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.
The president bowed out on July 21 after getting not-so-subtle nudges from Democratic Party powers, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Biden endorsed Harris and handed over his campaign operation to her.
Yang argued that Democratic Party leaders also deserve blame for taking too long to push out Biden. With few exceptions, most notably Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Democrats shied away talking publicly about Biden's age.
“Why was this not coming from any Democratic leaders?" Yang said. “It’s a lack of courage and independence and an excess of careerism, if I just keep my mouth shut, we’ll just keep on trucking along.”
The campaign was also saddled by anger among some Arab American and young voters over its approach to Israel's conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that Democrats lost the thread on working class Americans' concerns.
“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” the Vermont independent said. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing?”
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison took to social media Thursday to push back on Sanders' critique, saying that Biden was “the most-pro worker President of my life time.”
Harris managed to spur far greater enthusiasm than Biden was generating from the party's base. But she struggled to distinguish how her administration would differ from Biden's.
Appearing on ABC’s “The View” in September, Harris was not able to identify a decision where she would have separated herself from Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a sound bite it replayed through Election Day.
The strategists advising the Harris campaign said the compressed campaign timetable made it even more difficult for Harris to differentiate herself from the president.
Had Biden stepped aside early in the year, they said, it would have given Democrats enough time to hold a primary. Going through the paces of an intraparty contest would have forced Harris or another eventual nominee to more aggressively stake out differences with Biden.
The strategists acknowledged that overcoming broad dissatisfaction among the American electorate about rising costs in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and broad concerns about the U.S. immigration system weighed heavy on the minds of voters in key states.
Still, they said that Biden had left Democrats in an untenable place.
Harris senior adviser David Plouffe in a posting on X called it a “devastating loss.” Plouffe did not assign blame and said the Harris campaign “dug out of a deep hole but not enough.” The post was later deleted.
At the vice president's concession speech on Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had had more time to make her pitch to American voters.
“I think that would have made a huge difference," said Jerushatalla Pallay, a Howard University student who attended the speech at the center of her campus.
Republicans are poised to control the White House and Senate. Control of the House has yet to be determined.
Matt Bennett, executive vice president at the Democratic-aligned group Third Way, said this moment was the most devastating the party has faced in his lifetime.
"Harris was dealt a really bad hand. Some of it was Biden’s making and some maybe not," said Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. “Would Democrats fare better if Biden had stepped back earlier? I don't know if we can say for certain, but it's a question we'll be asking ourselves for some time.”
Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden, right, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, left, participate in a presidential debate hosted by CNN, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris hugs President Biden during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris listens as President Joe Biden speaks about distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, in the East Room of the White House, May 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
