Six Nations – Italy v England
Not for the first time the final score hides a mass of detail.
In less than twelve minutes of play Sarah Beckett’s involvement in this season’s Six Nations may have come to an end.
She was found guilty of the so-called ‘croc-roll’, was shown a yellow card, then became the first woman to suffer a red card under the new ‘bunker’ system.
Our first thoughts must go to the victim, Michela Sillari. Let’s hope she recovers quickly and is able to play a full part in next week’s match. I must delay further discussion of the sequence of events for a later date. For the viewing public it meant yet another game largely spent with unequal numbers competing.
England started off looking distinctly rusty. John Mitchell wanted them to play at a faster pace; I failed to grasp his meaning, since they were already playing faster than any other side on earth. Perhaps it was his version of last year’s ‘Grow the Gap’ policy. So now passes were fumbled, players were forced into touch and Lark Atkin-Davies treated the ball the way a swing bowler treats a cricket ball when it fails to swing. The English line-out failed to function several times.
TMO No 2
All the same, the Azzurre could make little of their advantage. On the quarter-hour the Red Roses got things right. The first of a series of wonderful moves saw Abbie Ward complete it by stretching for the line. But no! The TMO intervened again to say she had had two goes at placing the ball.
On the half-hour the score was still an unlikely 0-0. But Italian raids on the English line were notable for their absence. They couldn’t exploit their advantage either up front or out behind. England were happy to leave seven forwards to do the work at the set-scrum. Italian errors prevented them from building unstoppable attacks. They found the English defence as stifling as the Black Ferns had in the WXV final.
The dam broke at last. Helena Rowland made a telling break past flapping arms; the pack took over and Hannah Botterman had the opening try. 0-5. Now England got motoring. The ball was moved expertly with off-loads and quick repossessions to tire out the covering defence. By a happy coincidence it was Ward who scored her try after all. Quite a come-back! 0-10.
The half finished with no further scores. It had been scrappy in large parts, but the Italian failure to seize the opportunities offered them gave the Red Roses hope for the rest of the game.
Half-time: 0-10
Some wise words were spoken inside, because the Grand Slam winners came out of their blocks looking as they had wanted to from the start.
A line-out went like clockwork. Ward claimed the ball, the drive moved relentlessly, and LA-D claimed the third try. Just like old times. 0-15
The ground was lit up (only metaphorically – the sky was even bluer than Cardiff’s). Sofia Stefan hoisted a box-kick that showed Ellie Kildunne at her best. She caught it on the full, then advanced as if she was the only player on the pitch. Splendid isolation for her as she touched down by the posts. This time Zoe Harrison had no problems with the conversion. That was the bonus-point secured. 0-22
On 50 minutes came the time to replace the front row and Emily Scarratt, who had played a modest but important role in proceedings. She was back.
The pace simply increased. Veronica Madia dropped her head in anguish as she misfired a clearance kick and paid the penalty. The story now was the same as with the previous try, only for Kildunne, read Rowland. She danced past players to place the ball under the posts. 0-29
The Red Roses were in full flow. Wonderful handling combinations left Mackenzie Carson able to gallop over with minimum opposition in front of her. 0-36
The Azzurre countered with a nice move, but once more it came to a halt with a misplaced pass. The next moment they were holding the opposition up back on their own line.
TMO No 3
On 68 minutes yet another TMO intervention. This time the suspect was Rowland. She was seen going in very low at a pile of bodies on the floor. Had her head made contact? The temporary answer was Yes. So she now had to undergo the torments experienced by Beckett. To her immense relief the answer was ‘Yellow only’. But for the 9,003rd time this season we were left with a 15 v 13 game.
Astonishingly the Azzurre could still make nothing of this numerical advantage. It adds to the ongoing problems Nanni Raineri had already observed. Whether his troops can find their fluency again inside a week remains to be seen.
Instead, more sumptuous passing brought Kildunne her second try, this time on the far right.
Curiously, the ball didn’t run the wingers’ way today, so their back-three partner had to make up for the deficiency.
Alyssa D’Inca made a determined run for the line to get her team on the board, but once more an error had led to a forward pass.
To rub salt in the wound, the English produced a perfect line-out, catch and drive, for Connie Powell to claim the final score of the game.
Result: Italy 0 England 48
Player of the Match: Ellie Kildunne
Officials:
Referee: Aurélie Groizeleau (FFR)
ARs: Doriane Domenjo (FFR) and Melissa Leboeuf (FFR) TMO: Chris Assmus (RC)
Teams:
Italy:
15 Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi 14 Aura Muzzo 13 Michela Sillari 12 Beatrice Rigoni 11 Alyssa D’Inca 10 Veronica Madia 9 Sofia Stefan (captain) 1 Gaia Maris 2 Silvia Turani 3 Sara Seye 4 Valeria Fedrighi 5 Sara Tounesi 6 Isabella Locatelli 7 Francesca Sgorbini 8 Giulia Cavina
16 Laura Gurioli 17 Emanuela Stecca 18 Lucia Gai 19 Alessia Pilani 20 Giordana Duca 21 Alessandra Frangipani 22 Emma Stevanin 23 Francesca Granzotto
England:
15 Ellie Kildunne 14 Abby Dow 13 Helena Rowland 12 Emily Scarratt 11 Jess Breach 10 Zoe Harrison 9 Lucy Packer 1 Hannah Botterman 2 Lark Atkin-Davies 3 Kelsey Clifford 4 Zoe Aldcroft 5 Abbie Ward 6 Sadia Kabeya 7 Marlie Packer 8 Sarah Beckett
16 Connie Powell 17 Mackenzie Carson 18 Maud Muir 19 *Maddie Feaunati 20 Alex Matthews 21 Mo Hunt 22 Holly Aitchison 23 Megan Jones
*uncapped
Afterthoughts
I’m sure we can forgive the Italian intro to the game for suggesting England won WXV2. The whole WXV business is confusing enough.
Centurions: as we congratulate Marlie Packer on becoming the seventh Red Rose to post a century, we might wonder how often this will happen in the future. On the one hand there will be more and more matches played, not least annual WXVs; on the other, even leading players may have to be omitted entirely from 23s, as competition for places grows even greater.
Not even John Mitchell could squeeze a quart into a pint pot, so some familiar names were absent from roll-call today.
I’ll leave more serious issues to a later posting.
