Italy vs Scotland | Cuttitta Cup

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Italy vs Scotland | Cuttitta Cup
In memory of Massimo Cuttitta

Date: Saturday 9th March 2024
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Kick-off: 2:15pm (GMT)
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
TV Coverage: Live on ITV (UK) and Virgin Media (ROI)

Teams

Italy
15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Martin Page-Relo, 8 Ross Vintcent, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti

Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Spanish Mirco, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Lorenzo Cannone, 21 Stephen Varney, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Federico Mori

Scotland
15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (cc), 9 George Horne, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge (cc), 6 Andy Christie, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 George Turner, 1 Pierre Schoeman

Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Alec Hepburn, 18 Elliot Millar-Mills, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Jamie Ritchie, 21 Matt Fagerson, 22 Ali Price, 23 Kyle Rowe

This is why I’m so angry. Toonie and the team made it clear that the priority was beating England. After doing that we’ve gone back into headless chicken mode because we simply don’t want to win

Well played Italy, they will surely win this match now. They’ve totally outclassed us. Impressive performance from them after going down early.

Well that makes it even more interesting ...

Another forward pass!!!

What that actual FUVK Finn??? 5 men standing right in front of the posts. Any one of them could score and you chuck a wide pass to no one

That's a bit cynical. Yellow.

Geordie wrote:Another forward pass!!!

From the Italian? Looked like the Scottish defence knocked it back.

No 7&1/2 wrote:That's a bit cynical. Yellow.

Definitely.

Don't listen to Dickson - he's clueless

He’s through the gap. There’s then no cover. It’s a feckin yellow

With this deliberate knock on we have effectively lost the time between the offence and now.

Very lucky to avoid a YC. And about thirty seconds wasted before Gardener could communicate with the TMO.

He just broke them rejoined the maul!!!!

tigertattie wrote:He’s through the gap. There’s then no cover. It’s a feckin yellow

There's cover but that's a cynical knock on so it should be yellow but no pen try from me.

Geordie wrote:He just broke them rejoined the maul!!!!

The back two did. If they go to the TMO on that it gets chalked off. Scotland get away with one.

Most mauls are against the laws. Rejoing is basically just ignored these days

And another forward pass!!!!!

Do not throw an intercept please Scotland.

Foot in touch and forward pass ignored there

Well done Italy!

Superb game.

Well done Italy. Better team overall by far

Fully deserved Italy. The better side today, and the scoreline flatters Scotland.

What a game. Superb effort by Scotland to try and get win but Italy magnificent win.

At least I can now support Ireland now.

Well you have to say Italy deserved that and have been threatening to win in previous games ...

Absolute belter of a game that one. Well played both sides.

jimbopip wrote:Without Meatball to kick a last minute drop goal from 60 metres out I feel we could be in trouble.

Bring back the Meatball.

Well!
I don't take any pleasure in saying I told you so.

Best match of 6N by far, certainly for neutral fans.

funnyExiledScot wrote:At least I can now support Ireland now.

And my day is made even if England got humped...

mountain man wrote:Best match of 6N by far, certainly for neutral fans.

Entertainment!

We really need to look at our game structure, the collapses in every game is incredible and the same every time. Constant penalties, stupid mistakes, i mean 3 tries in 20 minutes then not another until the last minute. Absolute disgrace, we should've got rid of Townshend after the world cup.

We were bloody awful. Well done Italy on disrupting our game so well.

First of two home wins today then

Well, we copped the Italian performance that was always coming in this tournament. Well done Italy - if you're a neutral you would have loved that game.

From a jock perspective, we also absolutely did not do enough to win and the way that our match control just drops off a cliff in every second half that we play is starting to get terrifying.

Anyone else still believe that's not a coaching issue?

George Carlin wrote:Well, we copped the Italian performance that was always coming in this tournament. Well done Italy - if you're a neutral you would have loved that game.

From a jock perspective, we also absolutely did not do enough to win and the way that our match control just drops off a cliff in every second half that we play is starting to get terrifying.

Anyone else still believe that's not a coaching issue?

Toonie oot! Toonie oot!

Back on the bandwagon. 2/5 is unacceptable (yes I'm assuming we'll get battered in Dublin)!

Brex, Lynagh, Negri, Mencello, Varney.. Italia. A team effort and deserved win. I'm glad I mentally prepared for this earlier in the week because it does not come as a surprise to me at all to go down like this to Italy. They are a good side with a great coach. I hope they can make it two in a row next weekend.

jimbopip wrote:

jimbopip wrote:Without Meatball to kick a last minute drop goal from 60 metres out I feel we could be in trouble.

Bring back the Meatball.

Well!  
I don't take any pleasure in saying I told you so.

Hunky Duncy. Oh captain my captain.

"Looks like Scotland are bringing a replacement hooker on, wait, what the f***?!"

Minimal neck, maximal rugby.

king_carlos wrote:

jimbopip wrote:

jimbopip wrote:Without Meatball to kick a last minute drop goal from 60 metres out I feel we could be in trouble.

Bring back the Meatball.

Well!  
I don't take any pleasure in saying I told you so.

Hunky Duncy. Oh captain my captain.

"Looks like Scotland are bringing a replacement hooker on, wait, what the f***?!"

Minimal neck, maximal rugby.

It's because we didn't pick him and Stafford we'd have scored 50 otherwise

Has Ali Price been replaced by a chubby, malfunctioning AI version of his human form?
He looked out on his feet after about 5 minutes. Sadly Toonie decided to use his bench when he should have left them picking skelfs oot their backsides.
At least we only have another 3 seasons of Townsend's reign.
Oh, and the reinforcements from the U20' s will soon start to make an impact l. I'll leave you to decide what sort of impact that will be.

A terrific match to watch that.

What I find most impressive about Italy's development is the depth they are now showing.

Vintcent was excellent today with one of last years standouts in Cannone on the bench.

Tommy Allan has ruled himself out. He'd been integral to how Italy had looked to control games given their 9s general don't take a massive kicking workload.

Riccioni is their first choice TH but he's injured. Ferrari and Zilocchi had really good games though.

Plus of course, the sad recent retirements of Polledri and Minozzi. The sort of stars who not long ago would've been rare shining stars along with Parisse, Castrogiovanni, Bergamasco x 2.

Stephen Aboud really did do an excellent job of improving their pathways in a brief stint with the IRF. That combined with more investment in Benetton and a smattering of players in strong Top 14 systems. Italy rugby on the whole is looking a lot healthier.

I thought Dancer was reluctant to take the ball up to the line. He either caught and passed with minimal foot movement or shuffled sideways two or three steps. This played into the Italian drift defence. Very ironic that when the Tombola says 6/2 we really needed a 10 on the bench.
Blarehorn could have come in at first receiver and taken it to them.
I'm pleased for the Azzurri but totally nonplussed by our inability to close out games.

Some criticism of Russell here but not all his fault.
His cross kick at end was class under pressure. Can't see any other 10 going for that.

Hard to begrudge Italy their win.

They took everything we threw at them and came back for more.

I thought Scotland played pretty well, but sometimes you lose.

I have to say, the atmosphere in a full Olympic stadium was one of the best I have ever been at an international match. The Italians certainly do support their team and deserved their moment.

England take down Ireland! We have a chance to snatch it after all!

bsando wrote:England take down Ireland! We have a chance to snatch it after all!

You know what’s going to happen

We’ll beat Ireland, get the TBP, deny them a LBP but England will beat France and it’ll be for nothing

a lot of things have to fall in place for us...

Look triple crown opportunity, trying to look at the positives, or at least if we get battered, Toonie gets ousted. We can't go another year with absolutely no progress. Win-win, right!?

That's it then
All we need is a 38 point winning margin, and deny Ireland any BP.
Simple.

That's it then
All we need is a 38 point winning margin, and deny Ireland any BP.
Simple.

funnyExiledScot wrote:At least I can now support Ireland now.

Careful, they might think you're a jinx