In front of an expectant crowd of over 5000 fans, Scotland put one of their more underwhelming performances of the past couple of years, as they failed to grasp the initiative against a fired up and fizzing Italy team.
Scotland fall flat
There is no way to ignore that it was a substandard performance from Scotland, with Rachel Malcolm saying afterwards that maybe Scotland didn’t have the same want and desire defensively as they pride themselves on. This was not something that could be levelled at Italy who played like they had a point to prove after two dispiriting defeats. Scotland looked strangely flat, a little incohesive and a bit lacking in aggression, whereas Italy were largely the opposite. It felt throughout that Scotland could not get momentum going, even when they got themselves ahead after half time, or back within three points nearer the end, which should have been the catalyst for them to kick on and take control. Instead Scotland would deal with the kick off unconvincingly and it was Italy who struck back quickly. And unlike some other recent defeats, this wasn’t a performance where it was their discipline that really cost them – conceding only five penalties to Italy’s 12 – nor where they were dominated at set piece – the scrum was dominant and the lineout had a couple of issues but was still at 80%. But in general play, things were just a little bit off, maybe a little bit too predictable and Italy capitalised. This is the third year in a row that round 3 after the fallow week was the worst performance of the tournament (well let’s hope this is the worst performance) but I’m not sure if that’s coincidence or if other countries are using the break more effectively.
Battle of back threes goes Italy’s way
Both teams possess a brilliant trio of back threes, but Italy were able to unleash theirs repeatedly and Scotland rarely did, with the main bright spots being brilliant finishes from Chloe Rollie and Francesca McGhie. One of the causes was how the teams kicked. Looking back at pieces on previous games against Italy, our tactic of pinning Italy back with a long kicking game and then taking advantage of their lack of territory gain from their shorter kicks had been really effective. But in this game a lot of Scotland’s kicking was under pressure or in frustration. Their best kicks tended to be the ones where they found touch but there were just too many looser ones that just allowed Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi, Alyssa D’Inca and Aura Muzo to run the ball straight back at Scotland, handing Italy the advantage. Meanwhile, Italy used their short kicking game to put Scotland under pressure or regain possession, such as in the build up to their first try. Italy had a clear game plan of how to use the tactics that had defeated them in previous games to their advantage and it won them the game.
Italy also did a much better job of getting the ball wide quickly when there was potential space for their back three, probably shown best in their fourth try from D’Inca, while Lisa Thomson was in the sin bin. Scotland’s attack often didn’t look as crisp as usual, with a lot of passes a bit too high, a bit behind a player or otherwise slightly disconnected allowing the Italian defence to get up in their faces and shut things down. There was the odd little passage where Scotland would look in good rhythm and draw a penalty, but they couldn’t seem to do that consistently and would then look pedestrian and unthreatening. They were more reliant on Italian indiscipline to get down the pitch, as was the case for the Rollie try. We’re used to Scotland not taking all their chances and missing out on try scoring bonus points, but in this game there weren’t even that many chances to convert.
Defensive approach fails to shut Italy down
Scotland took something of a similar approach in defence to previous matches against Italy – unsurprisingly because they had only conceded a single try across the previous two matches between the teams. But this time, they conceded five. In their last game against Italy, Scotland had successfully shut down the Italian attack by targeting the ball and wrapping up players in double tackles. They had then also done a great job of slowing down Italy’s ruck speed, significantly blunting the Italian attack. In this game, they once again targeted the ball, although not always that successfully as Italy managed 12 offloads. But they did not compete much at the breakdown at all, bar the occasional breakdown steal. It was so strange watching it back, Scotland were keeping players on their feet quite a lot, so there were plenty of numbers in the defensive line, and yet Italy seemed able to get a lot of momentum in attack, making metres while Scotland tried to hold them up. Despite numbers, players like Muzo and D’Inca were able to use their footwork to find a way through. There seemed to be a bit less aggression and clarity than we normally see. Some of the line breaks came from brilliance from the Italians, but it also was a defensive performance far below the standards Scotland set themselves and we have come to expect.
Scotland manage their way out of the game
Probably the most frustrating aspect was what felt like below standard game management, on and off the pitch. Although a lot of this was down to how well Italy played, it was not what we expect from this Scotland team. Sometimes calling game management poor is just being wise in hindsight but all the things discussed in this section were things we were commenting on and getting frustrated by in real time from the stands.
The first was the failure to kick for the posts on a couple of occasions, most notably just before half time. The wind was gusting a little and maybe Helen Nelson wasn’t feeling fully confident in her goal kicking. And of course, it’s good to see some attacking ambition, but in the stadium most fans seemed to be willing them to take the points on offer. That is what they did against Wales, both this year and last year, and it is what saw them to victory both times. It is what they failed to do against Ireland last year in Belfast and it cost them.
One of the occasions where they turned down points, they took a scrum in front of the posts instead, in the 70th minute, 8 points down. Understandable giving the attacking platform that provides, except that Scotland did not seem to have a strike play ready (or if they did, they had a very basic shape set up). Instead, their attacking plan seemed to be Jade Konkel running really hard and then the same again with Thomson. Unsurprisingly, given how committed Italy were in defence, they held them out. Scotland did get a second chance a few minutes later, with another fairly central scrum in the red zone. And this time, they did seem to have more of a deceptive shape set up, with players in a harder to read formation. It did lead on to McGhie’s try, once the defence had been pushed out of shape. But between the two scrums, three minutes of game time had been wasted with Scotland chasing the game.
Another was the play that led directly to the Minuzzi try. Thomson is such a reliably brilliant player for Scotland, who’s kicking gets them out of trouble and creates so much, that it still feels surreal that when Scotland turned the ball over near their try line, she made the choice she did. There was a huge gap on Scotland’s right / Italy’s left, that if she had kicked in that direction or even passed to McGhie to attack the space, Scotland would have been up the other end of the field. We were screaming for them to go right. Instead she kicked up the other side of the pitch, straight to Minuzzi who ran right into that massive gap on the other side of the field, putting Muzo away, before an offload in the corner led to a try and a yellow card.
It wasn’t just on the pitch that perhaps better choices could have been made. The point of having a 6-2 bench is it allows you to make more flexible changes and give you forward dominance. Scotland needed more impact in their carries, which surely called for Konkel to come on earlier, but not for Evie Gallagher who was playing too well. It wasn’t that anyone else needed to come off, but Konkel could have come on at lock. She would have brought a different dynamic, even though both Becky Boyd and Sarah Bonar were playing well. It really doesn’t make sense to have all those forwards on the bench and then not bring Alex Stewart until 69 minutes and Adelle Ferrie with only five minutes to go, and only because of an injury. Scotland have reverted to a 5-3 bench this week, with several debutants, so it will be interesting to see if full use is made of it.
Evie still shines
It was not all doom and gloom for Scotland, and once again, I’m going to have to talk about the brilliance of Gallagher, who may well have kept Scotland in the game single-handedly for long periods, and who really should not have been taken off the field after yet another excellent turnover in her own 22. She took her try brilliantly and had several other carries where she made more metres through contact than she had any right to. Her jackalling is breathtaking. Although Scotland weren’t targeting the breakdown much, Gallagher took every opportunity that she could, registering four breakdown steals. That took her to five for the tournament in just 115 minutes of game time, as many as any male player from any team, bar Jamie Ritchie, managed across the whole Six Nations. And I’m not sure that includes the moment she ripped the ball from the arms of fearsome Italian icon Sara Tounesi a couple of seconds after I finished saying “I’m not sure there is a player I would less like to tackle than Sara Tounesi”. Another positive were the two new youngsters in the squad, 20-year-olds Becky Boyd and Molly Poolman. Although there were a couple of shaky moments, especially at kick off from Boyd, she carried really well, making a round high 16 carries and looked a solid line out option. Meanwhile Poolman looked strong in the carry and held up well in the scrum. Every player will have a point to prove against England. If every Scotland player can show the commitment and fight that Gallagher did throughout, then whatever the result ends up being, it will be a performance in which they and their fans will take great pride.
