The Azzurri scored tries through Josh Sole and Andrea Lo Cicero, but conceded four before half-time as the Fijians ran out deserved winners in front of a capacity 8,000 crowd at Churchill Park in Lautoka.

Fly-half Ramiro Pez also missed three kicks at goal to leave the Italy coach frustrated.

We knew Fiji would be a threat, but it was necessary for us to make some changes to our team, Berbizier told www.federugby.it.

But we did not perform the basics well. We tackled poorly and wasted three kickable penalties.

If wed kicked those kicks the result would have been far more favourable. We committed far too many unforced errors and we need to learn from this.

Mirco Bergamasco, making his debut as Italy captain, was keen to play down the significance of the defeat.

We played with too much simplicity and did not use our possession intelligently, he said.

We should not overreact though because Fiji are a good team. They are world sevens champions and are always dangerous at home.

Fiji coach Wayne Pivac was impressed with the fitness levels of his players and the way in which they controlled the opening 40 minutes.

In the heat we could see that they (Italy) were tiring, Pivac told the Fiji Times.

In the second half it was a real battle in term of getting field possession. So it was really about hanging tough.