Italy v Scotland 6 Nations Championship Saturday 12th March 2022

First topic message reminder :

Italy v Scotland
6 Nations Championship
Stadio Olympico
Rome

Saturday 12th March
KO 15.15 (local time)


So my biannual trip to Rome has come along again and I am wondering what i am going to be seeing this time around.

Having been the past two occasions, I am less full of the joys than some Scottish fans may be. We have made pretty hard work of it on both occasions and quite frankly aught to have lost 4 years ago. It was and remains, the classic banana skin game for a Scottish team and the one that the Italians will always feel that they have got a chance.

I might be feeling more confident had we really done ourselves any kind of justice in the past two games, but we certainly have not.

I might also be feeling a bit more confident were any of our star players living up to their billing and showing any kind of form, but they are not.

I also might be feeling a lot more confident were we able to put out our strongest side, wheras in reality we have gone from our best ever depth, to digging deep into the barrel in only a matter of weeks.


This is still a game we should win and comfortably, but i am not really sure that is what it will be at the end of the day and I will probably be happy with a one point win with an 80th minute drop goal if that is what it takes to steady the ship, as at the moment it seems all over the place.


Fortunately for us, Italy continue to struggle and with injuries and suspensions, will also be a way away from their best team. They have been well beaten in all three games so far, despite blooding their next generation of players and are clearly still struggling in this competition even if there are some decent signs of progress for the future. They won't lack passion and commitment, as their heroic defensive effort against Ireland showed but may still lack the game craft to win at this level yet.

The Scotland team now seems far from clear. Surely some players need to pay with their shirts for the poor performances in the last two games, but a wholesale clearout seems unlikely and a bench spot is maybe a more realistic option to remind a misfiring star player that they are not indispensable.

So maybe something like this:


1. Schoeman
2, McInally
3. Fagerson Z - was in the team of the week last week for his scrumaging, even if the stupid penalties persist
4. Gilchrist
5. Skinner
6. Darge
7. Watson
8. Bayliss - Fagerson still not fit and Bradbury still not convincing
9. White - deserves a start
10. Kinghorn - if not now then when?
11. Graham
12. Tuipolotu
13. Bennett
14. Steyn - assuming DVDM is out and with other injuries probably the safest option
15. Hogg


Subs:

Dell - hard to think who else is fit
Turner - though Ashman must be close
Nel/Berghan - can't make up my mind
Hodgson
Christie - deserves another crack and covers the whole of the back row
Price - hopefully warming the pine will have the desired effect
Russell - see above
Harris - but would have no issue with another flair player like Hutchinson coming in.


With that selection, I would expect to see Blairhorn moving out into the back three at some stage probably early in the second half and hopefully Price and Russell coming on to finish the game.

I live in hope!

Well he has kind of stuck, with a little bit of twist on the bench.

Good to have quality players like Watson and MF bsck, you wojld hope they will make a difference.

Would have liked to have seen a flsir player on the bench, but not to be. Tuipootu will hopefully be z handf with some hard running in the final quarter.

Not massively inspired, but a team that should win if it plays to its potential

Sounds like BK not available for this one.

Is it just me that's tickled a bit by Matt Fagerson (age 23, and 19 caps) being referred to by the BBC as a stalwart?

Craig Chambers on twitter suggesting that BK was unavailable this week as he could not travel as had not had his booster jab!

That seems so bonkers that it is probably true and might explain the radio silence from Toonie as to why Blairhorn not picked!

They are still taking covid seriously in Italy.

Mask wearing still mandatory indoors and has pretty much 100% compliance. On public transport you need an FFP2 mask.

You need to show your green pass every time you sit down for a coffee.

Italy was badly scared by the first covid wave and it has not forgotten

Greetings from home soil for the first time in over 2 years.

Means I'll be able to watch the game live on Saturday which I've been avoiding for 2 years - hope I'm not a bad omen!

Welcome back boss

Hope you are a good omen!

Does bringing Adam Hastings back in the team strengthen or weaken the team?

majesticimperialman wrote:Does bringing Adam Hastings back in the team strengthen or weaken the team?

Hastings is a bona fida FH, as opposed to Kinghorn. Who might generouslg be described as a work in progress.

Now in 3 years time, it is possible we might all see what Toonie is seeing currently. But in the short term, if Russell is having one of those days. You woulx rsther Hastings came on than BK

Pretty happy that Steyn is in King Duhans place but he'll have to go 80 with there being no wing replacement :O.

I really don't get all the moans about Harris, he's our best defender so he was a must imho, hopefully Johnson has a good game too.

Oh and Darge/Watson combo: .

Surely GT will survive after this weekend (though its ludicrous his position keeps getting questioned!) as we SHOULD win.

I'm going for a narrow win of +10 so don't Diss me lol, I just realise that we made hard work of beating Japan despite starting strongly, if I recall lol.

I'm off this week due to high case numbers so will be watching .

Pretty happy that Steyn is in King Duhans place but he'll have to go 80 with there being no wing replacement :O.

I really don't get all the moans about Harris, he's our best defender so he was a must imho, hopefully Johnson has a good game too.

Oh and Darge/Watson combo: .

Surely GT will survive after this weekend (though its ludicrous his position keeps getting questioned!) as we SHOULD win.

I'm going for a narrow win of +10 so don't Diss me lol, I just realise that we made hard work of beating Japan despite starting strongly, if I recall lol.

I'm off this week due to high case numbers so will be watching .

Oh and regarding Bennett, he's half injured (I think that's the term lol, gaffer says he's been "whacked" couple of times).

I really don't follow Toonie's own logic on Hastings here unless he is admitting he made s mistake - he left him out of the squad and made Kinghorn his #2, who all things considered did pretty well with the cameos he got off the bench. Kinghorn then puts in a brilliant performance for Edinburgh against Connacht so is full of confidence.

He then drops Kinghorn and parachutes Hastings back in! All of this instead of the 10 who has actually not been playing well and needing a rocket up the arse.

Just don't get the logic here.

Kinghorn not dropprd, he was left out for 'personal reasons' which may or may not be the lack of a covid jab.

That would also probably explain why Thompson brought into the squad as well, as Toonie always aware that BK was not going to play this weekend and needed FH cover.

Toonie said that he 'beleives" Kinghorn will be fit for next weekend.

Bennett sounded like his fitness was marginal as well, so they choose not to take a chance on him, which probsbly makes sense.

Ah I see - that makes a lot more sense then!

RDW wrote:Greetings from home soil for the first time in over 2 years.

Means I'll be able to watch the game live on Saturday which I've been avoiding for 2 years - hope I'm not a bad omen!

Whalecum back Flounder

Bet yer glad to be back under grey skies and a nice cool 7 degrees. Sod that Ozzie summer weather.

Sydney prepared me for Scottish weather as we had 3 weeks of monsoons and flooding. 20deg warmer though!

I don't understand the cool reception for young Samwise.
He's an attacking 12 with decent defence and a genuine link man.

Would you really rather the mighty G Dog?

I'm a big fan of Johnson. Compare and contrast the way he will put his head down and go for the line if it is on, bulldozing defenders, with Harris fear of actually scoring.I think a lot of people thought Shona would be a big upgrade at 12: he's pretty much on a par with SJ at 12 but ay more creative than Harris at 23. Which is irrelevant because aside all know when Blarehorn gets bored being a world class 10.

not at all confident on this one

Italy have actually played ok, and been quite lively.

Will be watching this behind the sofa....

If Italy get ahead before half time we'll be in serious trouble. This could be a turning point fixture for Italy so they'd throw the kitchen sink at it if there is even a sniff of a win. We need to put them to bed in the first 40 or it'll be a very uncomfortable afternoon.
This said, I still think we have enough in the tank to beat them and, with Hastings on the bench, I feel more confident about our fly half cover if Russell goes full tonto on us.

R!skysports wrote:not at all confident on this one

Italy have actually played ok, and been quite lively.

Will be watching this behind the sofa....

What????
Any team which can beat England....

doctor_grey wrote:

R!skysports wrote:not at all confident on this one

Italy have actually played ok, and been quite lively.

Will be watching this behind the sofa....

What????
Any team which can beat England....  

... like the Italian U20s?

Unclear wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

R!skysports wrote:not at all confident on this one

Italy have actually played ok, and been quite lively.

Will be watching this behind the sofa....

What????
Any team which can beat England....  

... like the Italian U20s?

Johnson also knocked out Tongan Thor! Major respect for that one.

I’m also excited for the Watson Darge Fagerson combo Shaun, it’s certainly got a lot of potential.

Well I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t realise Wales were playing France tonight. At least it wasn’t Scotland playing but still, poor form.

Seems like Wales bagged another LBP so that’s looking like a fifth place for us if we can’t beat Ireland. Seems pretty poor considering how well Scotland began the 6N. Injuries, odd selections, penalties, inconsistent, star players underperforming.. there’ll be plenty to mull over post tournament. Even two wins now would feel a bit false and highlight just how ridiculous Scotland can be as a team.

4th if we win tomorrow and get a losing bonus point next week .

I still think we are due a win v Ireland so hopefully next week is that day.

I still don’t understand why folk think we started the tournament playing well. We didn’t. We scrapped out a win over a very misfiring England side. They even had to give us a lot of help with a hooker being a muppet and Joe marler not being a hooker.

I really do think that we the fans, and particularly the players, actually bought into the hype this year and it came back to kick us all in our respective erses.

I think for me it was the fact we won playing badly that made me think, maybe we're at that stage now where we can grind out wins on bad days.

Turns out we are just playing badly. I'm back in the Toonie must go camp. It won't be until after the world cup, it should have been after the last atrocious world cup really.

Darge-Watson could be a gamechanger for us. If they win the breakdown and carry with threat in broken play the maybe, just maybe, our backs will have space and time to play some heads up rugby.
I can see us winning today but equally I can see us struggling. Fecc.

Toonie deserved a shot at redemption and we’ve got to give him credit for turning things around. He definitely made some sensible choices in fixing the defence and developing a very good game plan. Sadly there always seems to be some strange choices mixed in with that and now two abject performances in the 6N. Two more and it’ll be a full on revolt from fans.

Here, was parisse meant to be playing today as his farewell to Italy game???

Price already being gash

We really need a proper shake

We'll lose if we play like this for 80 minutes.

Not exactly a confident start

How many penalties?!

RDW wrote:How many penalties?!

I'd recommend getting yourself back into the Aussie time zone and having a 70 minute nap.

Fagerson is playing well at least.

Not the best of starts for Scotland, but Italy would certainly like to be more than 3-0 up. I think about 6-0 would be a better reflection. As soon as Scotland start putting some phases together, you’d expect them to take control of the game fairly quickly.

Italy were 10/1 for the win.

There we are see

Haha cheeky Johnson.

That's better!

Ha ha haaaa poor steyn.

Johnson stole that from him

Well this has all gone a bit bonkers

What a try!!!

Great read Price

Bit of an irritation that the ref is giving them lots of warnings but penalising us straight away. He shouted 4 times at their 11 earlier to stop his run - 2 should be enough then pen!

Yeah, that did annoy me with the 11 stop.

I didn't know that your own kick still counts with the held up rule - I thought if the opposition kicked to you

Wow that's a pretty good try too ...

If Italy can keep this up Scotland have got a match on their hands here ...