Italy v Scotland; Saturday 21 Feb. KO 1:30PM.

Losty Dublin

Live TV on RTE 2/HD and BBC 1/HD; live radio on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Scotland rugby is well and truly in the doldrums these days. Indeed, it is so bad that some say that their greatest game in the 6 nations was losing to Italy in their debut game in 2000, thus making them look as if they will give you a game, even on their worst day. Some record, eh? However, what is considered the archetypal wooden spoon game in the 6N is actually a battle between last years 3rd and 4th placed teams; something that is hard to fathom given this seasons early performances and their general long term form. Granted, the Scots had two difficult tests to begin the season but so too had Italy; their second half performance against Wales giving a strong indication of just how good they can be given some clean ball while Scotland failed to score in the Calcutta Cup. Mind you, Italy isn't much better and the recent news that Treviso are to pull out of the RABO just shows that not everything is A OK with their internal game set up.

Team wise, the spotlight will be positively on Italian back row veterans, Martin Castrogiovanni and Sergio Parisse, who are making their 104th caps, and negatively on the lack of Scottish captain Kelly Brown and the dropping of David Denton. Scott Johnston seems to have lost the rag and his teams confidence as of late; while the lack of new talent coming through limits the options for the next Ivan Tukelo or Scott Hastings it doesn't explain some bizarre tactics and passionless performances. One other notable call is no Bergamasco; he doesn't even make the match day 23.

My verdict? There will be a few tries but don't expect anything pretty, especially from the back lines. Italy by 8 points.

Italy: 15-McLean, 14-Esposito, 13-Campagnaro, 12-Garcia, 11-Sarto; 10-Allan, 9-Gori; 1-Di Marchi, 2-Ghiraldini, 3-Castrogiovanni, 4-Geldenhuys, 5-Furno, 6-Zanni, 7-Barbieri, 8-Parisse (captain).

Replacements: 16-Giazzon, 17-Aguero, 18-Cittadini, 19-Bortolami, 20-Derbyshire, 21-Botes, 22-Orquera, 23-Iannone

Scotland: 15-Hogg, 14-Seymour, 13-Dunbar, 12-Scott, 11-Lamont, 10-Weir, 9-Laidlaw (captain); 1-Grant, 2-Lawson, 3-Low, 4-Gray, 5-Hamilton, 6-Wilson, 7-Fusaro, 8-Beattie.

Replacements: 16-Ford, 17-Dickinson, 18-Cross, 19-Swinson, 20-Denton, 21-Cusiter, 22-Taylor, 23-Evans

irishbucsfan

Swiwi.

This is a game where I will check the score but no intention of watching it. Hopefully Italy can get a deserved result.

duckysauce

Hope Italy muller them

CoDy1

Campagnaro hatrick please. Badly need a few points in the fantasy.

duckysauce

CoDy1 wrote: »

Campagnaro hatrick please. Badly need a few points in the fantasy.

275/1 :cool:

19543261

Hope Italy smash them. Will be watching all of this.

errlloyd

I really hope no one smashes anyone in this game. I don't think it's good for rugby to have Scotland playing like ****. Jesus if Scotland managed a grand slam next year I'd be delighted.

mfceiling

This has the possibility of being one of the worst games ever seen in the 6N.

rrpc

mfceiling wrote: »

This has the possibility of being one of the worst games ever seen in the 6N.

It couldn't possibly be worse than last nights game.


Could it?

vienne86

I don't want to see Scotland smashed. I don't think it's good for the tournament. I'll watch this with one eye, but I'm not expecting much in the way of entertainment.

sydthebeat

I certainly DO want to see the Italians murder the Scots.

They might then wake up and question their decision to push Scott Johnson upstairs to director of rugby when vern cotter comes in. Johnson as a DOR for any country makes me shudder in fear. The man hasnt even got the rugby know how of a J4 coach, has no successful past coaching reputation to call upon and is designed to be a disaster .... as his latest folly with doing Denton will show.
Scottish rugby is in disarray and needs to be planned long term from grass roots up and Johnson is not the man to do this.

pickarooney

There's no reason why this shouldn't be a good game. There's avoidance of the wooden spoon at stake and they're fairly closely matched. Italy have an attractive running game in them when they're allowed play it. Scotland... might get an intercept?

molloyjh

mfceiling wrote: »

This has the possibility of being one of the worst games ever seen in the 6N.

It will have to sink very low to be worse than France-Wales last year.

keano_afc

Potentially as poor a starter to a main course that there could be. But yeah, from a fantasy perspective, Campagnaro and Parisse to score hat tricks each.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Italy aren't that bad to watch when they've ball in hand. It can't be worse than last night

duckysauce

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

Italy aren't that bad to watch when they've ball in hand. It can't be worse than last night

Yep it could be quite a good match it's one they both must win.

gavmcg92

Is the RTE stream down?

Artful_Badger

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Is the RTE stream down?

Nope.

gavmcg92

Artful_Badger wrote: »

Nope.

The online stream is up for you? Can't seem to get it.

Artful_Badger

gavmcg92 wrote: »

The online stream is up for you? Can't seem to get it.

Yep watching on RTE player, game just started.

gavmcg92

Artful_Badger wrote: »

Yep watching on RTE player, game just started.

Have had to switch over to Internet Explorer (ugh), Chrome isn't allowing me to play it for some reason.

Cheers.

sydthebeat

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Have had to switch over to Internet Explorer (ugh), Chrome isn't allowing me to play it for some reason.

Cheers.

It's working great on my chrome

gavmcg92

sydthebeat wrote: »

It's working great on my chrome

Thanks for rubbing it in... I despise IE

Losty Dublin

Update; Italy are 3-0 up after 15 minutes. It's, errrrr, interesting.

pickarooney

Italy are really cocking everything up when they get nest the line this year.

Inspector Coptoor

Italians are doing well in the scrum but their lineout is muck

Aidric

This game is living up to all expectations.

Tox56

Aidric wrote: »

This game is living up to all expectations.

I think it's actually been pretty entertaining, and I definitely wasn't expecting that. Skill level not good though

Felexicon

What was Duncan Weir at on that break away. Mind boggling

sydthebeat

Tox56 wrote: »

I think it's actually been pretty entertaining, and I definitely wasn't expecting that. Skill level not good though

Agreed, may not be top inch stuff, but way more entertaining and aspirational than last night's game.

Tox56

It's like Scotland have been told just to pass quickly and accurately with no thought whatsoever for actually drawing defenders. Looked like they had an overlap on the far side but the pass was given way way too early

Inspector Coptoor

So many phases from Scotland resulting in lateral movement at best & losing ground at worst.

Italian Defence is good.
Parisse marshaling them well.

vienne86

Scotland have had plenty of posession, but look as if they haven't got a clue how to go about scoring.

petebricquette

Scotland looked threatening a few times in attack but their defence is absolutely awful.

former legend

Enjoyable to watch but low quality so far.

Poor Hogg must get so frustrated, he's the only real class in those backs, if Scotland had Maitland and Visser things could be so different.

gavmcg92

YAY!

13-3 ht

Fireball07

Much better than last night imo. Italy are really quite a good team, I don't know how they managed to lose to France- they have a powerful scrum, some very good loose forwards and they show good ambition in the backs. Maybe lack a bit of cutting edge but Campagnaro has pace, Garcia is a decent crash ball merchant, McLean has a monster boot and is a decent counter-attacker.


Scotland look a lot more brainless. Weir's doing okay today, better than usual. Scott's good.

karma_

I'm no rugby expert but have to say I'm enjoying the game also.

Losty Dublin

I've been watching rugby for over 30 years, 26 of which has seen me play, coach and referee the game. In all this time, I can honestly say that the current Scotland team are the worst, inept and most negative squad that I have ever seen. All Italy need to do is to play a little better and a trouncing is on the cards.

Put it like this. Italy are pretty much made up by players from RABO's Treviso and Zebre, two teams who are at best average. Scotland are being outplayed by these guys, and these guys aren't even playing well.

gavmcg92

Whether they win or loose, the Italians play with heart. The same can't be said for others, especially France last night who pretty much gave up in the last 10 minutes.

toomevara

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I've been watching rugby for over 30 years, 26 of which has seen me play, coach and referee the game. In all this time, I can honestly say that the current Scotland team are the worst, inept and most negative squad that I have ever seen. All Italy need to do is to play a little better and a trouncing is on the cards.

Could not agree more. Rugby is dying on its feet in Scotland, I dread to think where the sport will be in a decade or so. what's so depressing about scotland is that the top 6 inches are almost entirely absent. They play such brainless football, its hugely frustrating.

gavmcg92

toomevara wrote: »

Could not agree more. Rugby is dying on its feet in Scotland, I dread to think where the sport will be in a decade or so. what's so depressing about scotland is that the top 6 inches are almost entirely absent. They play such brainless football, its hugely frustrating.

Seems like the u20s are just as bad if not worse than the national side. They're going nowhere soon.

pickarooney

things aren't looking any better for their women's side.

sydthebeat

And imagine Scott Johnson is going to be over the development of all these teams.

Scary.

Steve Perchance

Walsh is letting the front rows start miles apart - its a wonder they don't all end in a collapse/penalty

Compare that to Rolland making the hookers touch toes last night

gavmcg92

Good defence from the Italians

Fireball07

Why not take the 3?? Baffling.

Artful_Badger

Ridiculous not to take the kick.

Podge_irl

That was bafflingly moronic.

Losty Dublin

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Seems like the u20s are just as bad if not worse than the national side. They're going nowhere soon.

George Hook said pre game that there are less than 50 schools in Scotland playing the game these days. I hope he is wrong.

Do the Scottish grease their boot soles hands before the game; there was 3 woeful slips and handling errors from that penalty snipe.