Italy V England

toomevara

England to Massacre Italians or Italians to capitalise on England doubt and uncertainty? Hope the Azzuri pack put it up ti 'em....

bleg

italy are poor. england by 6 or 7 tries

Sherifu

Italy are stretching the English. If they get a bit of luck...

Stev_o

Ah dear Bourtolusi again im sure im going to hear all about this when my Italian mate talks to me tonight he cant understand why he's on the team

bleg

nah

england will hammer them

rockman15

england by 14....hope to see some vanikolo finishing today!!!!

Stev_o

Rollaind is such a bad ref makes game's go 2mph and cant ref scrums :mad:!

Sherifu

Italians haven't helped themselves, England look a lot more comfortable now.

Crash

McGuirk blatantly trying to rile up o'shea over sackey parisse really is a great player.

toomevara

Poor italy, I feel for 'em..such talented individuals in key position but no halves at all....Think the score flattering to England, not really putting it together and no pace at the breakdown...

Laslo

Did Brent Pope just say that Tony Soprano was coming off the bench? Hahaha.

Stev_o

Goomers must be the slowest passer ever, each ruck he takes about 10 seconds before he decides to pass it

flyswatter

Masi would be much better off in Mirco Bergamasco's position with Pez at outhalf IMO.

Stev_o

flyswatter wrote: »

Masi would be much better off in Mirco Bergamasco's position with Pez at outhalf IMO.

Agreed. Gotta admire the Italian effort, they are experts now at strangling the ball. Funny thing is that they are late starters notice that they came alive against us in the second half and its the same for this game

afatbollix

any one watching bbc? yer man is shouting over england now...

Sherifu

Brilliant!

Stev_o

England are as fragile as they come back. For England its ground hog day all over again

flyswatter

England are imploding again!

Stev_o

Gone are the days were teams put 50 points on them

toomevara

Italy should have won that game...England absolutely clueless/rudderless/ brainless...if Italy ever find a new 10 and a few half decent centres they'll be a whole different proposition.

Fantastic pack performance from the Italians and, dare I say it, gives a bit of perspective on the irish game last week....

flyswatter

Just saw the Man of the match interview. Bit off topic but fair play to Parisse. Not only is he a great player but he speaks good english! And he doesn't even play in Britain or Ireland!

flyswatter

toomevara wrote: »

Italy should have won that game...England absolutely clueless/rudderless/ brainless...if Italy ever find a new 10 and a few half decent centres they'll be a whole different proposition.

Fantastic pack performance from the Italians and, dare I say it, gives a bit of perspective on the irish game last week....

They have decent centres. Masi, Canale are good. Mirco Bergamasco is decent enough. Their back 3 is the problem IMO bar maybe Bortulussi.

Akrasia

Italy were very impressive in the second half and maybe this puts the Irish performance last week in context?

If they hadn't changed hookers near the end I reckon they would have won today. Their ball retention was very good and they only lost out in the line out.

The english got a few lucky bounces of the ball to take the win (and a lot of professional fouling that went unpunished (hands in the ruck, impeding ball chasers)

gadaven

england are more than beatable, France and Ireland can take them...

Stev_o

flyswatter wrote: »

They have decent centres. Masi, Canale are good. Mirco Bergamasco is decent enough. Their back 3 is the problem IMO bar maybe Bortulussi.

Hmmm Bergamasco doesnt have many aspects to his game bar running hard lines i would have preferred a better centre. Agree that they need a bit more speed in their wingers but i still think that Bortulussi isnt a great player way to inconsistent

is_that_so

Parisse sounds like Hook's love child the way he gushes about him.

Great performance and a few new faces for Italy to look at. Can see them picking up at least one win this season.

paddyreilly

Wow, England were pretty bad in the second half. Any other team would've taken them apart but Italy never stood a chance. An outhalf who kicks twice in a game shouldn't be playing at outhalf. Mallet's argument is daft about him.

Brian Moore is just hilarious. He was getting seriously worked up about England. And rightly so.

toomevara

flyswatter wrote: »

They have decent centres. Masi, Canale

Wouldn't agree, not international level..good players in their own right at club level, but lack the ingenuity or flair need to prosper at 6n...

aidan24326

paddyreilly wrote: »

Wow, England were pretty bad in the second half. Any other team would've taken them apart but Italy never stood a chance. An outhalf who kicks twice in a game shouldn't be playing at outhalf. Mallet's argument is daft about him.

Brian Moore is just hilarious. He was getting seriously worked up about England. And rightly so.

Thought Moore was going to strangle somebody alright.

Fair play to Italy though, improving steadily every year. Next step for them is to start actually winning some of these sort of games rather than glorious failure. Sometimes that can be the hardest step to make. They're still short a few players but they've come a long way in the few years since they joined.