6N Italy v Scotland 17th March 2018

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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.

Points needed off this attack now

That'll do boys

On the plus side we've had 2 attacks and 2 tries.

Could be a high scoring game;

good game so far, but the pitch does look very narrow.

Swinson with another net loss in a carry

This is the narrowest pitch I've seen in a long time!

U12 pitch I think.

Phase after phase of ponderous play. Can't see Toonie being happy with the tempo at the moment

Laidlaw is way too slow. He came in against France and looked faster. Price is needed to speed up the passing.

Russell needs to figure out how to slow down the Italy defensive front. Couple of chips needed.

We should have taken points there

So. Very. Slow! Shift that wide and get Jones on one of his angles FFS

Good defence from Italy.

Very band composure in attack there from Scotland, there were numbers out on the left and would surely have got a try.

Laidlaw is way too slow. It is letting Italy set up the defence. He is the wrong 9 for this game.

Swinson is too small. Early sub in the second half is probable. R Gray offers so much more

Seatbelt tackle on gray ignored there

Hazel Sapling wrote:Laidlaw is way too slow. He came in against France and looked faster. Price is needed to speed up the passing.

Russell needs to figure out how to slow down the Italy defensive front. Couple of chips needed.

Very good call and so very nearly paid off

I think that was a charge down, should be allowed to play on. No9 was a coward there.

Fortuitous work from the Italian sweeper there.

Very squint lineout

A rocket up the arse very much needed at half time!

Gray and Price on at half time please.

Well well, would not have imagined this halftime score...

Agreed. Lineout needs another option, Swinson hasn't done anything of note.

The backs look jaded, it's like none of them want to be there. Only grigg has really looked up for it, I really think toony missed a trick not shaking it up more

Italy are playing our game better than us at the moment. The pace and power in their attack over those last few minutes were impressive, and they're picking up the breakdown turnovers. We need to come out with a serious amount more urgency in the 2nd. Swinson isn't working and we could use Richie's power on asap. Russell is currently having one of those games where he's too laid back, he needs to switch on and start getting the Italian defensive line guessing what he's going to do

Hopefully they will come home strongly in the second half after a good talking to.

Good luck in the next match, Billy... and happy St Pat's Day to you!

It's the old cliché of next score being crucial! If it's Italy they'll have a huge lead to fight for.

Credit to the Italians.

Batman doesn't look 100% fit.
Buttons slow and ponderous, again.
Maitland's body language looks even sleepier than usual.

Aldi Price and Gray the Elder on asap, Clare Baldwin too methinks.

RDW_Scotland wrote:A rocket up the arse very much needed at half time!

Gray and Price on at half time please.

Wholeheartedly agree. We need to keep the ball and change the angles of attack.

May be disrespectful but we should be putting 40 points on this Italian team

TightHEAD wrote:I think that was a charge down, should be allowed to play on. No9 was a coward there.

Watch it Tight...

The Loaded Dog wrote:Hopefully they will come home strongly in the second half after a good talking to.

Good luck in the next match, Billy... and happy St Pat's Day to you!

Cheers lad

Italy have arguably played their best 40mins of rugby (so far) this 6N in this game.

Still a long way to go... but Scotland have to come out and take the game from the restart and not let the Italians get their momentum going again, or this could be a bad day for the Scots.

What is wrong with our mindset today? We're just sitting back and waiting for them to hit us

Why are we so bad away from home?

It must be a mental thing. Do we a physiologist in the team?

Well he made changes but not sure if we needed to change the props!

Definitely a knock on

That's unlucky, Italy deserved a score there

This is awful now. We're just dropping off tackles, absolute basics

Bad missed tackle from Wilson

Oh dear god, now that was poor defending and Italy get their third.

Set up is all wrong. All wrong.

Why did toonie drop Berghan who has been playing well to bring back a clearly non match fit fagarson?

Oops... think it’s going to a long bad day for the Scots

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bad missed tackle from Wilson

Was not good from Wilson but you expect a little more from Laidlaw in cover as well.

This is as bad as the Wales game. Absolutely no Composure!

Italy are playing very well but we're certainly not helping our case!

Here was me thinking that Italy would implode...

No clear deliberate knock on there

Stop forcing the bloody pass!!!

Scotland very lucky with the Russel knock on (or apparently not)/

With Scotland chasing the game, Laidlaw really has to come off now for Price.

Jones needs to come off. He has been terrible.

Laidlaw has sped up a bit and we look better.

lostinwales wrote:Scotland very lucky with the Russel knock on (or apparently not)/

Indeed IF it was a KO it surely would have been YC and PT - but from the replays they showed it wasn't clear - Parisse wasn't happy though ...