The city of Parma was in full on celebration mood for Liberation Day. Unfortunately, only Italy were having a party on the pitch as they tore apart a disorganised and depleted Scotland team, delighting a record home crowd for the Italian women’s game. Here are some talking points.
Early frustrations set the tone of the match
It was not a great first few minutes for Scotland and sadly that was a preview of the whole half.
Early attacking moves were going backwards, Scotland playing a long way behind the gain line and not getting any momentum, whereas Italy were making metres ball in hand. The worst omen was when Scotland were easily turned over during an early attack, the first of ten turnovers that would be won by Italy.
The most frustrating moment was when Scotland collectively switched off after conceding an early penalty. From the stands, it was pretty obvious that experienced scrum-half Sofia Stefan was planning to go quickly, but too many of the team had turned their backs and drifted towards the touchline in anticipation of a lineout.
Given quick taps are pretty common in the women’s game, it was an inexplicable mistake.
Rachel McLachlan and Demi Swann did their best to get across in defence, but there was a big overlap and Alyssa D’Inca scored yet another try against Scotland. Italy deserve the credit for quickness of thought and execution, but the opportunity had also been gifted by Scotland.
Things only got worse as the half went on. Attacks continually petered out because of Italian turnovers (their sixth was recorded by the 27th minute). When defending close to their line, Scotland really struggled to get organised quickly enough – this was true in both tries from Vittoria Zannette, where players were overfolding and failing to set a proper guard around the ruck.
The other two tries were mainly brilliant play from Italy – the miss pass from Veronica Madia for D’Inca’s second and the well-worked set play that sent Aura Muzo over just before half time – but Scotland looked hapless. They had conceded the same number of first-half tries as they had against England, but without anything on the scoreboard.
Tired and depleted Scotland wilt in the heat
It was a hot day in Parma and Scotland looked tired, possibly not fully recovered from the ridiculous tempo and physicality of the Red Roses the weekend before.
At times, all I could think was what had happened to the team that played so well at the World Cup last year. And although it is not an excuse, 13 of that squad were unavailable due to injury or retirement, including a late call off from captain Rachel Malcolm; the disruption was showing.
Scotland still should have done better, but perhaps these are factors that contributed to some pretty poor defensive organisation when defending close to the try line. Too often, the team was failing to get in position each phase, either over-folding or not having enough bodies back on their feet in the right place close to the ruck. There has also been a lot of talk about this being the start of a cycle and new systems, but this is not the defensive standard that the team would hope to show.
If there was any chance of a comeback, it took a hammer blow when McLachlan and Alex Stewart were injured within two minutes of the second half starting. Scotland were now fielding an entire back row of young lock/blindside flanker hybrids, rather than any specialists.
When Emma Wassell went off, for the second week in a row Lana Skeldon finished the game in the back row. In the second half, Italy’s attack continued to look quick and organised and perhaps could have done more damage if they were not so ill-disciplined and carded three times.
For Scotland, hopefully there will be some players back following the rest week as France will show no mercy.
Inaccurate attack adds to woes
As with the defence, it’s hard to judge how much of what is going wrong is down to learning new systems, how much due to key players missing, and how much is a more worrying malaise.
But a lot of what looked good in the Wales match, didn’t seem to materialise here. Perhaps players are just not in sync yet with a new structure, or players aren’t quite running exactly timed lines, but it often looked pretty messy and ineffectual. There was no entry into the Italian 22 until the 25th minute of the match and only seven overall despite 53% possession and territory.
Two things particularly stood out. Francesca McGhie carried five times, for three line breaks, 74 metres and three defenders beaten. She looked dangerous every time she got the ball, but she hardly ever got the opportunity. The only time she carried in the first half, it was after a couple of messy passes that she cleaned up. She was coming off her wing to try get involved, but there did not seem to be a clear plan to get the ball to Scotland’s best attacking weapon.
Occasionally Scotland looked a bit desperate with other backs trying to be the hero and go for it themselves, with McGhie outside them, but they were running straight into traffic. Hopefully we will see more of McGhie ball in hand in the last two matches.
The most dispiriting aspect of Scotland’s attack was the failure to score more than seven points when Italy were down to 13 for nearly ten minutes – and I’m not sure McGhie touched the ball in that period either. One near try was prevented by a phenomenal cover tackle by Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi when Scotland did manipulate the space well and set Shona Campbell away. Italy also got away with dragging down some Scotland mauls so that Skeldon’s try took longer to come than it should have.
But it was the next passages of play that were frustrating. Scotland were going to width too quickly without sucking in some defenders to ensure there was space. Although the pace of the attack was good as Italy couldn’t commit much to the breakdown, Scotland looked desperate and impatient and just were not finding a way through. Inevitably, before long they were turned over yet again.
There was the odd bright spot here and there – there is a lot of potential in the way Nelson and Smith swap in and out as first and second receiver, Nelson had some smart kicks and Smith had some nice inventive touches, such as one of those passes where she looked out the back and passed flat, but none of it was leading to anything. Hopefully it is just that: a new attack having teething problems, but at the moment it feels like it has gone backwards since the first match.
Scratching around for positives to take into week four
There was one area of improvement, in that Scotland recorded 100% success on their own throw at line out and scrum and hopefully that at least means they will have a bit of a platform in their last two games – although some of the line outs were a little messy and Scotland got away with it more than anything else.
Given how many line outs are taken by Rachel Malcolm, it was good to see that they were able to cope with her absence in this one respect.
If there is one positive moment that will live long in the memory, it has to be Molly Poolman’s excellent try. It was a lovely touch from Elis Martin to get her the ball and she showed a real turn of pace to break through. And then that dummy, as good as you’ll ever see.
It was a moment of pure joy, as well as smart play and individual excellence. Hopefully Scotland can bring together a few more moments of enjoyment like that in their last two matches after a difficult couple of weeks on the pitch for the team.
