6N Italy v Scotland 17th March 2018

          
ITALY v SCOTLAND
17 March 2018
KO: 12h30 GMT
Stadio Olympico, Comune di Roma Capitale

Live on ITV  

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère
Assistant 1: Someone else
Assistant 2: Someone else
TMO: Someone else

A. Head to Head
27 Feb 2016 Italy 20 - 36 Scotland
29 Aug 2015 Scotland 48 - 7 Italy
22 Aug 2015 Italy 12 - 16 Scotland
28 Feb 2015 Scotland 19 - 22 Italy
22 Feb 2014 Italy 20 - 21 Scotland
22 Jun 2013 Scotland 30 - 29 Italy
09 Feb 2013 Scotland 34 - 10 Italy
17 Mar 2012 Italy 13 - 6 Scotland
20 Aug 2011 Scotland 23 - 12
19 Mar 2011 Scotland 21 - 8 Italy

C. Teams

ITALY

TBC

SCOTLAND

TBC

Well, I really think we should be winning this one with our 1st TBP of the tournament. Italy have done nothing to change the perception of them being an unmitigated shambles.

I think he needs to make a number of changes particularly in the forwards - most of the squad have played the whole tournament, plus the Ireland game was brutal so there will be a lot of tired bodies this week. It will also create competition for places, as the players coming in will be chomping at the bit to play.

1 Bhattie
2 Brown
3 Nel
4 Gray
5 Gray
6 Barclay
7 Watson
8 Denton/Wilson

9 Price
10 Russell
11 Jones
12 Dunbar
13 Jones
14 Kinghorn
15 Hogg

Subs - Reid, McInally, Berghan, Gilchrist, Wilson/Denton/Fagerson, Laidlaw, Horne, Scott

          
ITALY v SCOTLAND
17 March 2018
KO: 12h30 GMT
Stadio Olympico, Comune di Roma Capitale

Live on ITV  

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère
Assistant 1: Someone else
Assistant 2: Someone else
TMO: Someone else

A. Head to Head
27 Feb 2016 Italy 20 - 36 Scotland
29 Aug 2015 Scotland 48 - 7 Italy
22 Aug 2015 Italy 12 - 16 Scotland
28 Feb 2015 Scotland 19 - 22 Italy
22 Feb 2014 Italy 20 - 21 Scotland
22 Jun 2013 Scotland 30 - 29 Italy
09 Feb 2013 Scotland 34 - 10 Italy
17 Mar 2012 Italy 13 - 6 Scotland
20 Aug 2011 Scotland 23 - 12
19 Mar 2011 Scotland 21 - 8 Italy

C. Teams

ITALY

TBC

SCOTLAND

TBC

Well, I really think we should be winning this one with our 1st TBP of the tournament. Italy have done nothing to change the perception of them being an unmitigated shambles.

sigh....

https://www.606v2.com/t67300-6n-tournament-italy-vs-scotland-17-march-2018-comune-di-roma-capitale

mine has better pictures...

Italy v Scotland
17th March 2018
Olympic Stadium
Rome


Italy looking to salvage something from another difficult season and Scotland wanting to show that they can win away from home!

Much as we Scots enjoy the underdog tag, it is really hard not to make us the favourites for this game and that brings pressure of its own. We need to win this game and really should be winning it quite well if we are going to continue to be seen as on an upwards curve in world rugby. Italy are coming off another bashing last weekend and it is hard to know what they will have left in the tank after a very hard competition.

You wonder if Toonie is planning to make a few tweaks to the team this weekend. If he is inclined, then surely this is the game to do it.

Ryan Wilson surely needs a weekend off now, so will Dents start, or possibly might we see Matt Fagerson coming in, maybe to the bench?

Has Peter Horne's miss pass cost him his starting place, might we see Grigg starting or Dunbar coming back in?

This might be the game to switch the SHs as well, Ali Price is due another start, or could he be really brave and give George Horne his first run out?

This might be the first opportunity to see the Tombola in action at international level!

I've merged the topics but used Radge's opening thread! Just under Biggee's name...

RDW_Scotland wrote:I've merged the topics but used Radge's opening thread! Just under Biggee's name...

It's going to kick off any second!

Very happy for RR contributions, I am not very good at all the fancy pictures and stuff!

So, his Richieness is in the squad after playing roughly bugger all rugby in the last two years.

Is he there to replace Huw Jones at 13 ? Or replace Nick Grigg as replacement 13? One is on a phenomenal scoring streak at International level and the other is in the form of his life.

My money is he's in as cover for Ryan Wilson.

Clare Baldwin or someone who doesn't actually play in the back row? Clare Baldwin or someone who hasn't played since The Tremeloes were last on Top Of The Pops?

No contest....Richie to start.

God! That Scottish picture needed a blow up to calm me down......

I think we should still make a selection that respects this Italy squad. We don't want to have another bananaskin like Fiji - then I'd be questioning the attitudes of our players and coaching staff.

Italy will be right up for this as they always are, especially in front of a home crowd. They were probably targeting this game from the beginning as on the road to improvement our form has been flakier than a freshly baked sfogliatella.

I don't think there should be major changes - apart from the bench. Only one I would consider is Price starting as Buttons looked absolutely knackered when he came off - I think Price will have a point to prove. Horne Sr suffered from a bit of "world class" syndrome after being talked up by the media I think. He will have learnt from that but I would not complain if Grigg was swapped from the bench as he's made a cracking impact both times he's been on. Denton will probably replace Wilson - he had a decent showing against Ireland - again no complaints. I'd be tempted to sub Gilchrist and bring in Gray as a lineout option as our lineout was atrocious.

Bench is a good chance to test our new blood. I think Horne Jr should be on, he's been outstanding at club level, and if we're up by more than a score (hopefully) he'll be great to bring on to run around the knackered bodies out there. Hastings hasn't really done enough to be included in the matchday squad for me but hopefully his time will come in the summer.

My 23:
Reid
McInally
Berghan
Gray the blonder
Gray the younger
Barclay
Watson
Denton

Price
Russell

Maitland
Grigg
Jones
Kinghorn
Hogg

Bench:
Brown
Bhatti
Nel
Gilchrist
Hamilton
Horne Jr
Horne Sr
A N Other (depending on our options - probably L Jones tbh)

Toonie must be tempted to make some changes, it is in his blood to mix and match and must have taken great restraint not to have done so previously.

There is definitely the chance to shake things up a little this time, both from coming off a loss and the opposition not being quite as fierce. We should not under estimate them though and I would not like to see a wholesale revamp in the way that Wales did. A bit of gentle tinkering will be fine for me. Richie Gray, Probably Grigg to start along with Price and maybe, just maybe Matt Fagerson on the bench, I think he may be worth a punt and Toonie has never been afraid of blooding the youths.

Jimbo I reported your post for the word Dan "Biggar" but spelt with a "U". It smashes my works swear filter. It is described as "obscene and tasteless" by our IT department....

Get yourself a new act Jimbo you are a disgrace.

Radge, I would report any post which had references to Yon Bugger in it.

However, as we all know "obscene" means "appealing to the prurient interest" Now if you find that Wales' most whiney, irritating, ungracious 10 EVER appeals to your prurient interest then you've been spending far too much time in the company of young Bru. Or you really are a Luvvie.

Back to the big story: Richie Vernon playing on Saturday. Which position? Wherever he wants.

Fact. Like Maro Itoje, Richie Vernon can hear sign language.

So all joking aside can we take all references of San Biggar down otherwise you'll be shorn of my top bants...

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:So all joking aside can we take all references of San Biggar down otherwise you'll be shorn of my top bants...

You're going to have to present a more appealing case than that!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:So all joking aside can we take all references of San Biggar down otherwise you'll be shorn of my top bants...

You're going to have to present a more appealing case than that!

I can't, but Vernon being recalled to the squad is quite hilarious with Matt Scott, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Huw Jones, Duncan Taylor, Mark Bennett and Grigg on the books.

Is Toonie on the pot?

Someone's got to hold the tackle bags!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Someone's got to hold the tackle bags!

OOh! Suits you, sir!

If it's Vernon or Clare Baldwin at 8 I'm not too sure which way Toonie will go.

Joking aside, Vernon is a strange call. It is not even clear whether he will get another contract with Glasgow next year, nothing we have seen so far suggests he should.

Maybe Toonie just wants to have a look at him himself, to see if he has any international future or not.

I am about as confident as I can be, with Toonie calling the team, that RV won't be playing on Saturday. I actually think that Grigg should start over Horne. I think he has played well enough in his two trips off the bench to have earned his chance.

OK. Joking aside.
RV baffles me. Jones, Grigg and even Harris are all ahead of him at 13. I think I've played more recently than His Richieness and I've been retired since Schiz last bought a round. BTW Gee, Grigg is not a 12 at club level never mind international.
Whereas at 8..... We all know we are struggling for a ball carrying 8. Clare B is not the sort of 8 Toonie wants. I felt rather like a proud parent at the Year 1 class assembly who is moved to tears simply because little Barnaby walked across the stage without feeling the need to defecate publicly.
Every time Denton went into contact I was looking for his too upright body position and every time he felt an Irishman anywhere near him he threw himself to the turf with heartening alacrity. Honestly, there was a part of me that was bursting with pride; he has spent years and years practising and now he can find the planet Earth almost every time. Mind you, I did think he was pushing it when prefaced every dive with, "To infinity and beyond".

A fit Vernon (if such a thing still exists) is more in the Toonie way of things. ( and much more like Batman)

jimbopip wrote:OK. Joking aside.
RV baffles me. Jones, Grigg and even Harris are all ahead of him at 13. I think I've played more recently than His Richieness and I've been retired since Schiz last bought a round. BTW Gee, Grigg is not a 12 at club level never mind international.
Whereas at 8..... We all know we are struggling for a ball carrying 8. Clare B is not the sort of 8 Toonie wants. I felt rather like a proud parent at the Year 1 class assembly who is moved to tears simply because little Barnaby walked across the stage without feeling the need to defecate publicly.
Every time Denton went into contact I was looking for his too upright body position and every time he felt an Irishman anywhere near him he threw himself to the turf with heartening alacrity. Honestly, there was a part of me that was bursting with pride; he has spent years and years practising and now he can find the planet Earth almost every time. Mind you, I did think he was pushing it when prefaced every dive with, "To infinity and beyond".

A fit Vernon (if such a thing still exists) is more in the Toonie way of things. ( and much more like Batman)

The only thing more certain than RV not lining up at centre against Italy is that he won't be lining up in the back row either. If he had really cut it in the back row in the first place, he would never have gone out into the backs!.

With CDP, Bradbury, Strauss out of the squad and Wilson likely to be on a return to play protocol, the only other included player other than Dents who is jumping up and down is Fagerson Jnr.

It is not a question of if he gets capped, only when. Maybe now is the time!

It's not going to happen but you just know Toonie is chuckling to himself and saying , "6. Fagerson 7 Hardie 8 Denton ho ho and Vernon to bench"
And Scott Johnson is replying, "Why not boss?They all play above the ground"l

My team:-

15 RV
14 RV
13 RV
12 RV
11 RV
10 RV
9 RV
8 Fagerson M
7 RV
6 RV
5 RV
4 RV
3 RV
2 RV
1 RV

Then can we get out players back for a week on Friday ?

I think that we are all failing to avoid the most significant issue on this thread.

Namely, just how nicely Karen Gillen is growing up.

George Carlin wrote:Namely, just how nicely Karen Gillen is growing up.

And the award for pervy old man comment of 2018 so far goes to.....

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Namely, just how nicely Karen Gillen is growing up.

And the award for pervy old man comment of 2018 so far goes to.....

Challenge accepted

If Scotland win it will be Sergio Parisse's 100th test defeat. That's some record.

I know this is tempting fate, but does anyone else think Parisse has been looking a bit past it lately? He's not effective carrying into contact anymore and has been making high profile mistakes.

He's going to be 35 this year and his body will have had a battering over a long career.

Parisse, thankless job that he had as a virtual one man army for so long, has been past it for a good few years now in my opinion.  His frustrations, whilst understandable, have seen him try to always take too much of the game onto himself.  He doesn't trust those around him/or didn't, therefore he tries/or tried to do everything himself... often just confusing his team mates and getting in the way as a result.

Great player as an individual but being in such an underperforming side has given him bad habits that he can't now offload.  But on the other hand, he stuck with his team through thick and thin - proud to wear his National shirt, didn't shy away from it, didn't try to offer excuses as to why he might seek an easier route earlier and retire from International to get a longer club career.  Nope, he kept turning up and nobody could ever say he hasn't been always 100% committed to the effort.

Absolutely no doubting all of that, but I certainly don’t fear playing against him anywhere near as much as I used to. He doesn’t even get the token MOTM that he always used to get!

I bet he scores a hattrick now…

He's very much like Lawrence Dallaglio was for England (funnily enough of Italian descent too!) as another iconic 8 with a large skillset.

Gave it his all, refused to retire, tried to play the whole game himself.

Likeable chaps though.

His heart just isn't in it anymore and O'Shea talked him into staying on longer.

really is a shame as it is highly likely that he'll end up with 100 test loses against his name which is quite possibly a record that will never be equaled!

Italy did look pretty good in flashes in the wales game. After giving away 14 points in the first five minutes, they were the better side for the rest of the first half.

They faded away very badly in the second half though, the competition looked like it was starting to catch up with them.

Give them some ball to play with and they are dangerous though.

I really did feel sorry for Tommy Allen though, who got absolutely flattened by Falatou in a completely legal tackle. That one will be doing the big hits u tube highlights for quite some time!

Team is announced at 11

Team I would like to see, assuming Wilson is out.

Bhatti
Brown
Nel
Gray
Gray
Barclay (C)
Watson
Fagerson

Price
Russell
Seymour
Dunbar
Jones
Maitland
Hogg

Reid
McInally
Berghan
Gilchrist
Denton
Laidlaw
Horne
Kinghorn

What do you guys think about this?

Really its a nothing game and will have no impact other than to decide if we finished 3rd or 4th in the table which no one will remember in years to come.

Now I'm not advocating disrespecting Italy or not treating the match as a serious test match, but should we look to play some fringe players in this game as opposed to sending out our strongest team?

I kind of agree with you, but there's a balance that needs to be struck blooding players, who may make the grade for the RWC and letting the relatively new team we've formed learn and grow together. There is also our undoubted fatigue and the Italian's targeting this game, to factor in. With that in mind, I think we'll see:

Bhatti
Brown
Nel
Gray
Gray
Barclay (C)
Hamilton
Denton

Price
Russell
Kinghorn
Horne
Jones
Maitland
Hogg

Marfo
McInally
Z Fagerson
Gilchrist
M Fagerson / Watson
Laidlaw
Grigg
Jones

Swinson
Nel
Grigg at 12

Starting

Reid
Brown
Nel
Swinson
J Gray
Barc (C)
Watson
Wilson
Laidlaw
Russell
Maitland
Grigg
Jones
Seymour
Hogg

Bhatti
McInally
Z Fagerson
R Gray
Denton
Price
Horne
Kinghorn

First team selection I've genuinely been disappointed with. Why swinson?? Good to have gray back on the bench though.

I still can't see us losing but think this is a bit of a slap in the face for blair Kinghorn who absolutely would have merited re selection.

With Laidlaw I think we've missed a good chance to try out it price again who has been successful at starter too let's not forget and put Horne jr on bench.

First selection I actually disagree with a fair bit this 6Ns

Not sure what Berghan has done to deserve being completely dropped from the squad, he's been pretty much rock solid in the three games. I don't think Fagerson is necessarily a better scrummager than him. A strange call by Townsend.

Yeah, I am underwhelmed by this selection.

Swinson over Gray is odd, while I really don't think Grigg is a 12 - great 13 at club and possibly international level, but I worry about his distribution at 12.

It's a quick enough run into the WC and you only have so many games where you can afford to try different players. I guess Townsend is saying to himself, Italy is such a team.

Swinson and Wilson starting, both smart, on the edge rugby players gives us a large bit of dig.  Grigg at 12 is a wee bit strange - not renowned for his passing at all.    Berghan is the one I feel sorry for - the scrum was fine with him and no better when Nel came on.

It think a bit of it is just Toonieesque rotation, I don't think any of those players should consider themselves to be dropped. We need a squad for the WC and so we have to try a few different combos.

Toonie likes Swinson and what he brings to the team, a bit more dog and aggression than some of the other second rows.

Grigg has played well and deserves his chance, he will run hard at the Italians and then Horne will come on in the second half when the game opens up a bit, he may be paying the price for being a bit to loose against Ireland.

Kinghorn is unlucky, but he will be happy with a start and two bench appearances in his first international season. Hopefully he will get a good run off the bench this time. He is going to be a star of the future but we should not expect to much of him immediately.

It is a good team and should beat Italy comfortably.

Ah good old toonie and his bonkers selections are back

Grigg is a 13. I'd have thought that Dunbar or A.N Other would have started. Jones and the back three were probably looking at the Italy game as a chance to cut loose and score a few tries each but I'm not sure how much ball they'll get with Grigg, who will run at the Italians hard all day, but isn't likely to give good ball that often.

I'm seriously hoping that Gilchrist has been taken aside and told that he's very much in the team going forward and that the inclusion of Tiny Tim ahead of him is purely Townsend having a giraffe. As for Ben Toolis, he must be wondering what he's done to be be binned. I know it would be knee jerk reaction stuff but I'd not be surprised if he gave the SRU a two fingered waved goodbye if a decent money contact was put under his nose by either a Top 14 club or even one in Japan.

I'm also concerned about a non match fit Nel starting with a non match fit Fagerson on the bench as cover. I'd have thought it a no brainer to leave Berghan in the match day squad at least!