Australian-born Canadian Quentin Fyffe threatened to ruin Italy's dream of making the Rugby World Cup quarter finals in a heart-stopping encounter at Canberra Stadium.

But Italy just managed to hold on to beat Canada 19-14 and keep alive its quarter final ambitions.

Canada was on the verge of causing an upset after Fyffe bolted through the Azzurri defence to score a vital try in the 67th minute.

A loss to Italy would have just about wiped it out of the World Cup tournament but the slim win was enough to allow the Azzurri to challenge Wales on Saturday for a quarter final berth.

The winner of the match will almost certainly progress to the quarter finals.

If Italy wins on Saturday, Wales would have to cause the upset of the tournament and beat New Zealand to overtake the Azzurri.

It was a nail-biting encounter at Canberra Stadium, with Canada dominating play late in the second half and forcing an exhausted Italy outfit to constantly defend its line.

In the end Canada had to be satisfied with a bonus point for staying within seven points of the winner.

Italy finally managed to cross for its first and only try in the 56th minute of the match but 11 minutes later Canadian fullback Fyffe responded when he broke through the Italian defence and sprinted down the field to score his team's opening try.

Fyffe, 31, is from Gosford on the NSW Central Coast and played for Avoca Beach, the Central Coast XV and Eastern province before moving to Canada in 1996.

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