Italy vs England, Sunday 2:30pm, Match Thread

thomond2006

RBS SIX NATIONS

Venue: Stadio Flaminio Date: Sunday, 14 February 2010 Kick-off: 1430 GMT

Coverage: Watch on BBC One, BBC HD channel, Red Button and online; listen on Radio 5 live sports extra; text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles



Italy:
15-Luke McLean, 14-Andrea Masi, 13-Gonzalo Canale, 12-Gonzalo Garcia, 11-Mirco Bergamasco, 10-Craig Gower, 9-Tito Tebaldi,
1-Salvatore Perugini, 2-Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain), 3-Martin Castrogiovanni, 4-Quintin Geldenhuys, 5- Marco Bortolami, 6-Josh Sole, 7-Mauro Bergamasco, 8-Alessandro Zanni.

Replacements: 16-Fabio Ongaro, 17-Matias Aguero, 18-Valerio Bernabo, 19-Paul Derbyshire, 20-Pablo Canavosio, 21-Riccardo Bocchino, 22-Kaine Robertson.

England:
15-Delon Armitage, 14-Mark Cueto, 13-Mathew Tait,
12-Riki Flutey, 11-Ugo Monye, 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Danny Care;
1-Tim Payne, 2-Dylan Hartley, 3-Dan Cole, 4-Simon Shaw, 5-Steve Borthwick (captain), 6-James Haskell, 7-Lewis Moody, 8-Nick Easter.

Replacements: 16-Steve Thompson, 17-David Wilson, 18-Matthew Mullan, 19-Louis Deacon, 20-Steffon Armitage, 21-Paul Hodgson, 22-Toby Flood.

Date: Sunday, February 14
Kick-off: 14.00 GMT
Venue: Stadio Flaminio
Expected Weather Conditions: Light rain showers expected. A high of 9°C and a low of just 1°C.
Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)
Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Pascal Gauzere (France)
Television match official: Hugh Watkins (Wales)

Shammy

I think England have vastly improved from last year , they seem to have sorted out there disiplinary problems , Italy shouldnt be a problem for them.

toomevara

Feck, sorry thomond...your's takes preference by virtue of seniority, some nice pics and a weather report....sigh....

SomeFool

toomevara wrote: »

Feck, sorry thomond...your's takes preference by virtue of seniority, some nice pics and a weather report....sigh....

He's taken over from Juvenal quite well I think.

Can't see past an English win here, I'm sure the Italians will put it up to them up front but if they show the same lack of ambition that they did in the Ireland game it will be esay for England to pick off the points.

Sherifu

Very close to an early English try.

cruiserweight

Italy already playing much better than last week, well with only 5 minutes gone

Aidric

Well balanced game so far. Love to see an upset here.

Kev_ps3

Wilkingson not kicking well:)

thomond2006

lol at consecutive commentator's curses on the BBC.

Italy playing far better this week, showing some ambition in possession.

Sherifu

So far so good.

Chucky the tree

lol, at least Brian Moore is a lot calmer about England kicking the ball away this year.

Aidric

amacachi

Lucky for us Italy didn't try to play like this last week.

cruiserweight

Forza Italia 6-3 up now

thomond2006

"Same old Monye, always diving..."

C'mon Italy!

ilovelamp2000

I can never make head nor tail of the England selections.

Why pick a backline and back row that's suited to a running game and then pick an outhalf who historically has never been able to conduct a running game ?

cruiserweight

Brian Moore seems to be making the most of his new refereeing knowledge in commentary

SomeFool

Nice break from Flutey. 6-6 @ half time

d'Oracle

SomeFool wrote: »

Nice break from Flutey.

Sometimes it seems like he is the only player in the squad who is capable of changing direction while running....

B0X

This'd be gas if Italy won.

toomevara

cruiserweight wrote: »

Brian Moore seems to be making the most of his new refereeing knowledge in commentary

Yeah, also Justin Marshall's a nice commentator on the game...enjoying his contributions thus far.

Danakin

The refereeing training has helped Moore be less irritating in general I'm glad to say. And yeah Marshall is one of the best analysts during a game and articulate as well. I've seen him on Wales' ScrumV show and he's excellent.

Just thinking though the BBC get around! Inverdale,Davies and Guscott were in Cardiff yesterday and Rome today. If only RTE had the budget...

Aidric

Danakin wrote: »

Just thinking though the BBC get around! Inverdale,Davies and Guscott were in Cardiff yesterday and Rome today. If only RTE had the budget...

No point comparing budgets. Good on them I say.

SomeFool

Danakin wrote: »

Just thinking though the BBC get around! Inverdale,Davies and Guscott were in Cardiff yesterday and Rome today. If only RTE had the budget...

It can be hard enough to listen to Hook and co at times without having them gloat about what a nice day it is in paris/rome etc too.

Risteard

That was like a Judo takedown.

Arms around the neck and slightly tripping him up.

SlickRic

this is an awful, awful game.

the lack of running is hilarious.

especially from England.

do they not realise that most times they run, they create chances?

SomeFool

If only Italy had a reliable kicker

Crash

Crap.

Risteard

Try Tait.

ForeverYoung90

nooooooooo!try english:(

Sherifu

Thar she blows.

crisco10

Loved the BBC Commentators reference to Powell's golf buggy incident..

"Here's Gower, speaking of golf buggies. Look up his Wikipedia page"

wikipedia wrote:

Gower has been involved in a number of alcohol-related off-field incidents.

In 1999, Gower exposed himself to a female Irish tourist in a Coogee bar, blaming his behaviour on alcohol intoxication. He was dumped from the Kangaroos Squad and fined $2,500 by the NRL and a further $500 in court after pleading guilty to indecent exposure.[5]

Gower was fired as Panthers captain in December 2005,[6] after incidents at a charity golf event where he argued with several guests, groped the teenage daughter of former league player Wayne Pearce, chased Pearce's son with a bottle before vomiting on him, streaked around the resort, wrecked a golf cart, held a butter knife to the throat of a Sydney radio personality and threw the knife at resort guests before being kicked out of the function by security.[7] Gower was handed a "final warning" by the National Rugby League and fined $100,000, with $90,000 to be paid to an NRL programme encouraging the responsible use of alcohol by league players and $10,000 to replace the destroyed golf cart.[8] Gower was "deeply unhappy" that the Penrith Panthers club did not defend his reputation, and at one stage threatened to "walk" from the club.[9]

Allegedly inebriated with alcohol in a bar at Kings Cross on 11 February 2007, Gower allegedly tried to kiss one man before biting him on the neck and sparking a brawl, and is accused of assaulting another man.[10][11] The Panthers club controversially reappointed Gower as captain in 2007, claiming the Peppermint Lounge incident was just a media "beat-up".[12]

Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser said Gower was unfit to be captain, due to his alleged lewd behaviour at the charity golf event which she attended,[13] and Sarah Maddison, spokesperson for the Women's Electoral Lobby, said "reappointing Craig Gower would send all the wrong messages."[14]

ForeverYoung90

Whats upwith johnny today!:pac:

Sherifu

Great hands from the Italians before they lost it.

toomevara

Yet again England have left their frontal lobes in the dressing room. Desperately dull/conservative stuff...

SomeFool

14-9 now. Bergamascos kicking reminds me of Hendos brief spell at 10 with Munster, used to wince watching him kick.

Sherifu

If Italy had a bit more composure & luck they'd be level or ahead by now.

toomevara

Sherifu wrote: »

If Italy had a bit more composure & luck they'd be level or ahead by now.

Completely agree, I think they're in with a great shot here.

crisco10

If Italy do take the lead, I hope its in the last 2 mins. I don't think they would have the composure to hold a lead longer than that.....

toomevara

Ih he converts this...come on Italy!

SomeFool

Game on 12-14
Come on Italy

Sherifu

Another 3 points closer hopefully.

/ed yay!

amacachi

Come on Italy!

crisco10

In my best Mario-Rosenstock-does-Ronan-Keating voice "COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Aidric

It'll have to be try under the posts for Italy to win this.

toomevara

Sincerely hope this is the England that turns up at the cabbage patch in 2 weeks...

crisco10

toomevara wrote: »

Sincerely hope this is the England that turns up at the cabbage patch in 2 weeks...

They have to have a "reactionary" performance at some stage....

Sherifu

toomevara wrote: »

Sincerely hope this is the England that turns up at the cabbage patch in 2 weeks...

They have been dire today. They'll be lucky if they get out of this with a win.

toomevara

Really unimpressed with Borthwick looking for a yellow card from the ref...poor stuff.

crisco10

toomevara wrote: »

Really unimpressed with Borthwick looking for a yellow card from the ref...poor stuff.

So was Brian Moore. "its not football" was his quote!!

Aidric

Boo.