Scotland 23-12 Italy Post Match Discussion

BBC IPLAYER LINK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013ywxl/Rugby_Union_2011_2012_Scotland_v_Italy/


Scotland secured a comfortable victory over Italy in their final warm-up match before the World Cup.

Tries from Alasdair Dickinson and Mike Blair either side of half-time proved to be the difference between the sides in an error-ridden affair.

Italy scored breakaway tries through Tommaso Benvenuti and Fabio Semenzato.

But Scotland, who lost Nikki Walker to a knee injury late-on, held on for a confidence-boosting win, with Dan Parks kicking the other points.

Scotland had made 14 changes from the side that defeated Ireland 10-6 in their previous warm-up match, with Glasgow centre Graeme Morrison the only survivor.

Italy, meanwhile, were closer to full strength, having made 11 changes since their narrow win over Japan.

The home side showed their attacking intent from the off, running the ball from deep in their own half.

Rory Lamont made a searing break after two minutes, side-stepping three tackles before off-loading to Richie Vernon.

The Italians were penalised at the subsequent breakdown and Parks put the Scots 3-0 in front.

It got better for Scotland 10 minutes in. After some good phase play in the Italian 22, Max Evans wriggled free of a weak challenge and found Dickinson on his shoulder, leaving the prop with the easiest of finishes for his first international try.

Parks added the conversion to put the hosts 10-0 up.

Having squandered plenty of territory and numerous chances against the Irish, Andy Robinson's men seemed determined to turn pressure into points this time around.

However, despite the Italians being pinned back in their own 22 for almost the entire opening 20 minutes, some sloppy handling prevented Scotland adding to their lead.

How costly that proved to be as Italy sucker-punched the Scots from a scrum on their own five-metre line.

Captain Sergio Parisse combined at the base of the scrum with Fabio Semenzato to send full-back Andrea Masi into space.

The ball was kept alive and winger Benvenuti outpaced the covering defence to score. Mirco Bergamasco added the extras.

That try seem to knock the home side off course and, had it not been for a missed penalty attempt by Bergamasco, their advantage would have been wiped out.

Parks made no mistake with a routine penalty on the stroke of half-time, making the score 13-7 at the break.

Scotland started the second half as they had ended the first, error strewn and wasteful in possession.

On 48 minutes, Italy moved the ball wide along the backline and without any great invention created an overlap.

Masi's chip ahead was gathered by the Scottish defence, but they were turned over near their own line. Semenzato broke through a poor tackle by Richie Vernon to dive over the line. Bergamasco failed with the conversion.

The response from Scotland was only five minutes in coming.

There seemed little danger as Masi prepared to clear his lines with a punt downfield. He took too long though and scrum-half Blair charged the kick down and was first to the loose ball to score. Parks made no mistake with the conversion.

The fly-half nudged Scotland into a 23-12 lead with a penalty just three minutes later.

Centre Nick de Luca looked lively from the start and, on the hour mark, he almost fashioned another try. He showed blistering pace to make an outside break but couldn't find support to finish the chance off.

Scotland were now back on top and made several half-breaks through the likes of de Luca and Evans, but handling errors and turnovers in the contact area continued to hinder their scoring chances.

Italy offered very little as an attacking threat as the match petered out.

There were several bright spots for Scotland, not least a man-of-the-match display from de Luca, but winger Walker's World Cup hopes could be in doubt after he was forced off with a knee injury with just a few minutes remaining.

Still, the Scots head to New Zealand buoyed by two home victories in as many weeks.

Great game, Scotland started well, rucked, cleaned out, and threw it about with pace and skill, and raced into a 10-0 lead. then they conceeded a silly try and went into their shell, but finally managed to finish Italy off in the final quarter.

NDL had a very good game and deserved his man of the match accolade. Euan Murray did enough to secure his place as did mike Blair.

Not an inspiring performance but a win nonetheless.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:NDL had a very good game and deserved his man of the match accolade. Euan Murray did enough to secure his place as did mike Blair.

Not an inspiring performance but a win nonetheless.

I thought it was great until Italy got that lucky try.
I think Scotland decided to stop being expansive after that point, up until then they looked deadly and capable of running up a cricket score.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:NDL had a very good game and deserved his man of the match accolade. Euan Murray did enough to secure his place as did mike Blair.

Not an inspiring performance but a win nonetheless.

+1

PACK -
Dickinson: we knew he couldn't scrum beforehand, so nothing new there; useful shift in the loose tho
Lawson: part of a front-row that was struggling, but accurate darts, showed up to a degree in loose
Low: mullered by Castro, have to wonder whether he's worth a place on the plane if Cross is no.1 and Murray is back-up - you'd need Low for the bench against Arg unless Robbo takes a chance that Dickinson can cover both sides ()
Hines: good at set piece, useful with ball in hand, nice offloading
Kellock: dominated the line out and tireless around the park
Brown: generally did well, as usual, occasionally caught in scrum defence cos he was trying to shore up Dickinson!
Barclay: stole a couple and generally made breakdown life difficult for Italy
Vernon: some great moments (mainly with ball in hand), some shockers (missed tackle to gift Italy's no9 a try)

BACKS -
Blair: kept pace in the game even if his pass is still a little laboured, always finds himself in good positions in cover defence
Parks: sublime territorial display but you can sense his discomfort with running game, but did enough to get on the plane and missed just the one kick
Danielli: what was he thinking, started well, but looked disinterested from then on, part involvement in both Italian tries, but may get lucky with Walker's injury
Morrison: he's the best 12 we have, it's just that that is not saying much
De Luca: solid game, one embarrassing flat-footed missed tackle, but managed to look dangerous with ball in hand
Evans: menacing, threatening, but can get isolated, but always looks like our back most likely to score
R Lamont: a mixed bag, feel he did plenty to get a berth but not enough to dislodge Mossy from the 15 jersey

SUBS -
Hall: cameo and brief appearance, still just about qualified to carry the bags
Murray: scrummaged strongly when he came on, proved his fitness and must travel, Sunday-bollix or no
Gray: disappointing shift, only in the sense that he's a bit off his high standards from last 6Ns
Rennie: too short a time on the pitch
Cusiter: looked sharp, great to see him back
Jackson: got the ball moving thru hands again when he replaced Parks
Walker: looked to be taking the ticket out of Danielli's hand until his knee injury - looked serious enough for him to be ruled out

KEY SELECTION AREAS UP FOR DECISION -
Wings: S Lamont & Evans already nailed on, one place up for grabs; was going to Walker, but Danielli may be the beneficiary despite a lacklustre performance
Back row: Barclay, Beattie, Brown & Rennie already on the plane, probably to be joined by Stroks, don't feel that Vernon did enough to be included, so Browm will provide cover at 8

SQUAD -
Props: Chunk, Cross, Dickinson, Murray (maybe Low, maybe not)
Hookers: Ford, Lawson, & unfortunately Hall
Locks: Gray, Hamilton, Hines & Kellock
Backrow: Barclay, Brown, Beattie, Rennie & Strokosch (Vernon if no Low)
Scrumhalves: Blair, Cusiter & Lawson
Flyhalves: Jackson & Parks
Centres: Morrison, Ansbro & De Luca
Back three: S Lamont, Evans, Paterson, R Lamont & Danielli

STARTING XXII -
Chunck - Ford - Cross/Murray
Hines - Kellock
Brown - Beattie - Barclay
Blair/Cusiter - Jackson
Morrison - Ansbro
S Lamont - Mossy - Evans

Subs: Lawson - Cross/Murray - Gray - Rennie - Blair/Cusiter - Parks/DeLuca

AsLong, that's a pretty good summary. Assume I agree with you, I'll just throw in a couple of alternate views.

Hall managed to fall under the low standards he has already set himeself.
Low was very disappointing, Murray I was going to suggest leaving out but he didn't half steady the scrum - much more his old self.
poorest game from Gray in a long while, but he has generally been excellent and would still be my starter with Hines
Brown was excellent, couldn't believe the work he put in, watch the game again and just focus on him. Copybook blindside.
Barclay - much more back to the his pre-2010/11 standards when was thought about the best NH 7. Needs to show he is back there.
Disappointed with Vernon's carrying, expected more
Until his chargedown try I was ruing the fact Laidlaw hadn't been given more chance. Not as impressed with Blair as some.
Parks was a mixed back, started really wellbut when things turned tougher he worried me (as did Blair).
De Luca had a good game but he even looked for support on one break and still didn't give the ball. Better but still not convinced despite MOM accolade.
Pleased with Evans and Lamont
Was Danielli on the pitch? At least Walker tried.

Agree with your 22 except R.Lawson for Blair, would change starting 15 slightly.

After two weeks ago, Lawson would be the one I leave behind. I thought Blair was ok today, though certainly better than Rory. I dont think we saw enough of cusiter to judge. for his own sake, I hope hes been training well.

I say it time and again, and ill continue saying even though I know it will never happe, but morisson has to stop taking contact as the first option. draw and pass, the number of times that wouldve done more than going to ground...

finally, the scrum is really worrying me. We know Robbo likes to bring Dickinson on at 60 minutes without fail, but the simple fact is he cant scrum. John Beattie said that it was maybe a bit harsh against Dickinson, but he gets destroyed every time. We need Jon Welsh or Ryan Grant to step up next year and offer a viable alternative to chunk.

On the evidence of yesterday Cuthbert should go if Walker is injured - not Danielli. Dickinson took his try well but gubbed in the front row with Low by a very savvy Italian front row -like Georgia's apparently !

Only managed.to see the second half due to red button issues. not at all convinced we will get out of the group now. while great to win we llooked completely headless in the second half. danielli should not be going, hope walker is not too injured as seemed to be more dangerous. m urray has to go but worry about the argentina match on subday. blair was ok but not great.

Deluca was ik in parts but still looks lost on occassion. veron did himself no favours.

Parks was woeful in the second half and with him we becone a poor defensive side.

Did not see much of r lamont so patterson at 15

All in all very worried about the world cup now

What happened to the fluid rugby of the first half of the first half ? It seemed to fizzle out and Parks retreated - he even managed a tackle on Bergamasco when we were in the ascendancy, albeit half hearted as usual. Wee Chris looked up for it. As did EM and Walker. Danielli and Vernon looked off it - esp the for the second Italian try. At least Vernon put some effort in unlike Danielli who was totally anonymous and seemed to want to be anywhere else apart from M' field. Wee Max looked good and Rory Lamont good in attack but lame attempt at a tackle on the Italian wing for their first try. De Luca good but not MoM - that should have been Brown or Barclay. Thought Blair looked way better than Lawson though.

We are the only unbeaten side of the home nations in the RWC warm ups-
yessssss indeed !!!!

I hate games against Italy. They have such negative anti-rugby tactics it just turns games into a dour spectacle. Scotland started well yesterday and had a high tempo to the game and what do Italy do (as they do every game)? One of their front row goes down "injured", one of their front row has to tie their laces, one of their front row has to change a contact lense - basically one of their front row stops the game and slows everything right down time and time again. Add that to the fact that they ambled towards every line out and it just killed the game.

Fair play to them though - it killed all of Scotland's momentum but my god it also killed off the game. I though Italy had stopped doing this in the past year or so but they have gone right back down to their old level.

Simple way to beat Italy - get more than a 10 point lead and force them to come back at you and not repeatedly slow down the game. Then you see that they really have nothing to offer.

Back to Scotland - I thought Brown and Evans were superb and Blair and De Luca were good. Agreed with Danielli - here's hoping Walker's injury isn't too bad.

RDW_Scotland wrote: Simple way to beat Italy - get more than a 10 point lead and force them to come back at you and not repeatedly slow down the game. Then you see that they really have nothing to offer.

Eh? we did that and then their backline tore us apart off a scrum.

Sorry guys long time lurker first time poster.
Anyway a few thoughts on Scotland as a poster.

Despite Blair's try, he had a few handling errors, particularly the attempted pass when running back which eventually led to Semenzato's try. Rory Lamont was very good in the first half and although he was definitely at fault for Benvennuti's try, offered good penetration from the back, could get involved in more back line moves though.

A bit worrying to see the linout fade a bit towards the end of the second half although how much of that is down to Hall?

Also good to see the fake pod and then the ball spread further wide. Lets our backs run hard and fast from deep onto the ball and offers more good penetration.

Still slightly dissapointing to see us not take all the chances we had although with 14 new starting players fair enough I guess.

Parrisse imperious as ever, whilst Castro excels at the scrum and at being a WUM I felt Scotland did deal with the Castro pod ball quite effectively. He lost a few meters ball in hand.

Best of luck to the lads in NZ.

Welcome dingmeister

teh_Dingmeister wrote:Sorry guys long time lurker first time poster.

Welcome to the forum

Knee injury rules Walker out of Scots World Cup squad

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14605272.stm

A real shame for the lad - I've never been a fan of the Hawick-born Walker, but he did seem to have been on the verge of finally producing the goods at international level (as he has over the years at club level with the Os) given his displays in the last few matches - he certainly would have made it into my 30. You could see as he lay on the pitch explaining with a cross-the-knee hand motion to Dr James Robson that he'd taken a knock which was likely to have resulted in ligament damage - hope he recovers fully and quickly

Think he'd done enough to beat off the challenge of Danielli, guess Danielli likely to go by default despite not doing too much. Hope he's quickly back with the Ospreys.

Shame about Walker. I'd have taken him on his showings in the warm-ups. I just can't figure out what Danielli was thinking against Italy. He looked completely disinterested. So much so I'd seriously give some thought to taking both Euan Murray and Vernon and going with an 18/12 split. Danielli showed absolutely zero interest in the game, particularly for that first try. Why he thought simply jogging along the touchline whilst his opposite number was causing havoc was beyond me, and although the second try is primarily Vernon's fault, Sean Lamont would not have let the 9 over without a fight. He's a much better player than that. Ulster fans would not have recognised him.

The other big disappointment was Murray Low. Lo Cicero caused mincemeat of him. I didn't actually think Dickinson was too bad, and was harshly penalised several times, the bigger issues were on Murray Low's side. Dickinson is good enough to absorb 80 minutes against Romania. Thereafter it's the Chunk show. That's the loosehead story for me. Murray was better than Low, but I didn't think he was a huge amount better, just more solid. I'm leaning more towards taking him, but it's a tight call.

On a positive note, Parks looked good, some nice touchfinders, decent goal kicking and his distribution was actually pretty sharp. He's a good back-up to Jackson and I wouldn't be too worried if Parks had to play a role in the bigger games. I certainly wouldn't want Jackson place kicking after that horrible attempt on goal. He needs CP to play with him.

Other positives were Max Evans, NDL and Rory Lamont in attack, all looked dangerous and sharp. Each had the odd defensive slip, but it was encouraging to see them all play the match in a positive way. Rory Lamont should be given the Romania game at 15, he'll cause havoc against them running from deep.

As for the 30, I think the big debate is whether to take Vernon, and if you do, who misses out: Murray or Low, Strokosch or Danielli.

I'm so disappointed with Danielli after yesterday I'm tempted to ditch him. We have a lot of versatility in our backs, we could probably manage with the following 12:

Blair, Laidlaw, Lawson, Jackson, Parks, Morrison, NDL, S Lamont, Ansbro, M Evans, R Lamont and C Paterson.

The last 5 names can all play wing. You could always have Cuthbert or Cairns on stand-bye.