Scotland v Italy, 29 August

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SCOTLAND v ITALY
29 August 2015
KO: 15:15 BST
BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Live on BT Sport

Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: [TBC]
TMO: [TBC]

A. Head to Head

24 Played 24
16 Won 8
0 Drawn 0
8 Lost 8
540 Points 428

B. Recent Form

22 August 2015
Stadio Olimpico di Torino, Turin
12–16 to Scotland

28 February 2015
BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh
19 – 22 to Italy

22 February 2014
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
20 – 21 to Scotland

22 June 2013
Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, South Africa
30 – 29 to Scotland

9 February 2013
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
34 – 10 to Scotland

17 March 2012
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
13 – 6 to Italy

20 August 2011
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
23 – 12 to Scotland

19 March 2011
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
21 – 8 to Scotland

C. Teams

SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) – 32 caps; 9 tries, 1 pen, 48 points
14 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) – 95 caps; 12 tries, 60 points
13 Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors) – 7 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
12 Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps, 1 try, 1 con, 1 pen, 10 points
11 Tim Visser (Harlequins); 19 caps; 7 tries, 35 points
10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps; 1 try, 1 con, 7 points
09 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester) – 39 caps; 3 tries, 41 cons, 81 pens, 340 points

01 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 45 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
02 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) – 87 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
03 Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) – 1 cap
04 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps, 1 try, 5 points
05 Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 13 caps; 1 try, 5 points
06 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps
07 John Barclay (Scarlets) – 44 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
08 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby) – 26 caps

16 Stuart McInally (Edinburgh Rugby) – 1 cap
17 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps
18 Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps; 1 try
19 Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors) – 16 caps; 1 try, 5 points
20 Blair Cowan (London Irish) – 12 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) – 15 caps; 4 tries, 20 points
22 Ruaridh Jackson (Wasps) – 26 caps; 4 cons, 2 pens, 2 drops, 20 points
23 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) – 27 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

ITALY

15 Luke McLean, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Guglielmo Palazzani; 1 Matias Aguero, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (c), 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 4 Marco Fuser, 5 Joshua Furno, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 7 Francesco Minto, 8 Samuela Vunisa.

Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Quintin Geldenhuys, 20 Mauro Bergamasco, 21 Marcello Violi, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Andrea Masi.

You need to install adblock for chrome!

And surprise surprise, Castro is down!

123456789 wrote:

A Simply Mesmeric Try wrote:

Majestic83 wrote:Another one is cricfree.tv pretty good picture

can't see the picture for the adverts!

Try to find the full screen button

I sure tried that but it's disabled for whatever reason. Found a different site now though

I do use an ad-blocker, but a lot of these sites are cottoning on to that and disable the feed or block it with text if they detect an ad blocker

No matter, I'm it watching now. We look strong! Nice to see Hoggy playing.

John Barclay is having a very strong game

123456789 wrote:John Barclay is having a very strong game

Damn right! Great turnover!

The Italians are jammy dodgers!

Visser should have had that though!

The defence of that chip was almost comical.

Anyone else get a great surge of anger whenever Tommasso Allan gets the ball? I know he's not very good but it grates with me.

123456789 wrote:The defence of that chip was almost comical.

Anyone else get a great surge of anger whenever Tommasso Allan gets the ball? I know he's not very good but it grates with me.

Considering it's Tommaso on his birth certificate, you can't really argue. He was born there too.
Frankly if his heart was never with Scotland, sod him.

I have found myself in a large mall with Mrs GC at this precise moment, which you would argue demonstrates a terrible lack of foresight.

Wassa score and how are we playing please?

Mesmeric, have you tried installing adblocker?
Scrum looking good.
Frodo still ponderous

16-7

We're looking sharp and Italian try just happened was fortunate.

16-7 GC

A Simply Mesmeric Try wrote:I do use an ad-blocker, but a lot of these sites are cottoning on to that and disable the feed or block it with text if they detect an ad blocker

Aye Jimbo

Currently looking at firstrows dot org, which works ok.

BT should do day passes like Sky does via NowTV. It's £7 I'm willing to pay for good coverage.

Italian openside - Minto - has been sin binned. 38mins on clock

Barclay having a stormer!

Hawkeye being used by the TMO.

Try JOHN BARCLAY! Well deserved.

Laidlaw converts - 23-7

One step forward...

What the hell happened there??

Farce!

Stadium clock was at 40:00... Like the Millennium Stadium incident all over again...

Mesmeric, Time4Tv ?

Schlong and Barcs try scorers

One for the bookmarks, cheers jimbo! 

Sensible play at times. Italy got their position from an Denton knock-on but otherwise quite tidy. Barclay looking hungry, laidlaw guilty of poor kicking and slow at breakdown again. I think all penalties should be sent down the touch line though, kicking practice not helpful here

Good first Half from scotland. Using the ball well and getting good width. Pack is looking strong and going fairly well at scrum and maul time. Backs looking pretty sharp and attacking well.

Visser furra lineeeee!

Good try in the end. Laidlaw will be strung up for waving his arms around at the ref instead of moving immediate ball from the ruck though.

Frodo is the weak link today.

Lovely line by Hogg and great disguised pass by Russell there. Shame Hogg couldn't quite keep his footing.

Rob Harley needs a big game, hoping Barclay stays on as he's been the heartbeat of this perfomance.

Some of these breaks in play from scrums have been awful.

jimbopip wrote:Frodo is the weak link today.

I'd disagree he's done very little but he's not put a foot wrong and with the talent outside of him at the moment against a pretty poor set of Italians that's all we need. I'd still rate him third of our scrum halves but he's had a solid game.

Great vision by Lamont for cheaky intercept.

Lamont scores twice in a game! Realising he's nearing 100 caps, he's obviously trying to improve him tries per game ratio 

Thanks for the updates! Keep them coming.

Especially if Frodo is banished to Mordor.

Thanks for the updates! Keep them coming.

Especially if Frodo is banished to Mordor.

Numbers, Frodo hasn't done anything wrong he's just too slow and too deliberate.

Surely due a red??

43-7 I'm amazed, thats a fantastic score from Scotland.

Oh yeah GC, Visser scored his second with a length of the field interception. Russell converted for 43-7

Bennett for length of field try after turnover on our 5m line!


Russell misses conversion - damn! I really would've been chuffed to put a half century on Italy.

Final Score 48-7

Great result, some nice play, but Italy were bloody awful!

My summary

Italy were woeful
Scotland played with real intent
Scrum fab until subs came on. Maul seems fixed at least for now
Welcome back barclay, deserves a place.
J gray great too lots of unseen work
Front row outstanding
Frodo- pass. Just. I'd start pyrgos
Lamont good value for squad member
Visser learn to defend but lamont wouldn't have scored thay length of the field, let's face it.
Horne was a little disappointing .. Bennett excelleny hogg had good bursts and drew defense well.
Jackson and Scott pass for their sub though Jackson seemed to be forcing it a bit

GC, the Messiah ripped the ball out in a tackle on our line, Jackson's kick was partially blocked and young Bennett caught the ricochet,swerved through the Italians and ran the length of the field to score. 48-7.

Most improved area has to be the Maul. We defended their rolling maul well throughout the game. It has been a real pain to watch recently, but today they seemed to have it sussed. We even managed to score from one of our own!

Thought Laidlaw played well. Tight 5 were very good for Scotland and the back row had a good balance. Pack on a whole had a bit of a stormer.

I was busy listening to my welsh housemate moan that I wouldn't let him watch the bore-fest on the other channel but ...

Dickinson - 8 - fantastic scrum performance
Ford - 7 - good enough darts and forward work
Nel - 9 - fantastic scrum performance. Lasted well too.
Gilchrist - 6 - someone might correct me, but was he playing?
Gray - 8 - good work in the pack and good carries
Wilson - 6 - seemed to do enough, but not stand out
Barclay - 8 - great first half and might be one of the reasons the maul suddenly came back to life, he controlled that well. Gave away a few penalties in 2nd half though
Denton - 7 - good carries and did plenty of dirty work.
Pack overall (as a unit) - 8 - greater than the sum of its parts this week

Laidlaw - 6 - pass. That's all I could say
Russell - 8 - some great passes and drew defenders expertly. He looks dangerous. To give Laidlaw some credit, Russell doesn't have to worry about game management and can focus on attacking ball with Laidlaw at 9 ..
Visser - 7 - Should have denied Italy their only score if you ask me.
Horne - 5 - I think he was poor this time
Bennett - 8 - Good work and some good runs. Quite good in the breakdown too.
Lamont - 10 for effort, 7 for attainment - says it all really!
Hogg - 8 - dangerous runner, made no mistakes
Backs - as a unit - 7 - seemed a little disparate at times.

Don't fancy rating the bench!

Effie, a very good ratings. Except I would have rated Horne 7.5easy. His defence was tenacious and he was always looking to make things happen.

Felt Wilson did well in defence and at the maul. Gilchrist solid and carried well, Barclay excellent and hard to shift off the ball unlike Cowan. Laidlaw had a poor kick in 1st half giving ball straight back to Italy and hard to explain why go for goal after a series of drives on Italian line earned 3 consecutive penalties in one phase of play. Surely a line out and drive was the thing to do as another Italian infringement would have likely been met with a card. I enjoyed Lamont's two tries finally some reward for his commitment! Hogg looked tentative - maybe related to warm up. Bennett was class. But who to play vs France...

What Jimbop said. I'm not sure people watch Horne when he plays he was everywhere today. Just not as visible as the last few weeks because Russell was pulling the strings inside him instead of him pulling the strings outside Tonks.

My main criticism today is that our backs were very lateral - especially off first phase. Part of the reason for this is that Horne's first movement is usually always sideways, and he was used a lot today as a link man. As such we just ran across the pitch, and Italy shuffled across accordingly.

Being quite picky, but we've got to be!

I'd broadly agree with Effies ratings, but the good performance has to be tempered by the fact that Italy were absolutely terrible.

Apart from his opening restart not going 10 and kicking the ball out prematurely at the end of the first half, I thought Russell looked a class apart. His delayed pass to Hogg was particularly gratifying and he showed Weir when and how to throw a miss pass for the first Visser try.

Although he didn't play badly, Frodo cemented my fears about him starting at 9. The extra 2 seconds he spends pointing at where he is going to pass the ball will stymie our back line against better opposition. Just get it away from the ruck, man!

Great result. When did Scotland last score 6 ties? We will never get rid of Shlong now tho after 2 tries.

Good forward performance overall Nice to see Barclay back playing well in a Scotland shirt

Backs look good but I don't thik the Russell / Horne / Bennett combo really works. Bennet looked class

Cotter has all the info now to pick his squad. France game for some fine tuning. Suddenly its all looking good.