Scots rue Italy loss, Irish cry over England setback

The Scots will be anguished for choosing this as the moment to lose to Italy, and Irish eyes will be crying about a lost historic second successive Grand Slam opportunity. But the penultimate round of the Six Nations was marked by positive revelations for the global game.

Let’s start with Italy, who played before a crowd of 70,000 in Rome, the biggest attendance at the venue for many years. That positive turnout was easy to understand: the most recent time Italy played they drew away with France, and they were unlucky to only draw.

Italy weren’t far away from England in the first game of their Six Nations campaign either.

A one-off draw with France might be seen as a flash in the pan, pushing England close might be seen as one of those days that Italy just got up for it. But add all of those games together, and we’re light years away from the talk of Italy dropping out of the Six Nations to accommodate SA.

The breakdown in the mooted CVC deal had already scuppered talk of the Boks playing in the Six Nations, but if there was still a lingering chance surely that is gone now. If SA was to be accommodated, it would have to be in a Seven Nations.

Italy’s improvement was already telegraphed by the performance of their Under-20 team in the Junior World Championship last year. Clearly the structures that former Bok and Cheetahs assistant coach Franco Smith, now coaching the Glasgow Warriors, put in place during his time as rugby director at Italy are paying off.

I would also argue that SA is playing a role in the rise of Italy in another way. Having to play SA teams has put the two Italian teams participating in the United Rugby Championship on a sharp learning curve.

Scotland will be livid for losing the game because, though they didn’t know it at the time, they were on the cusp of becoming proper contenders for the Six Nations crown. Had they managed their expected win over Italy, they’d have profited from Ireland’s loss to England later in the afternoon by going within a point or two of the summit of the Six Nations log.

As it is, they do have a chance of annexing the trophy, but they are going to have to beat Ireland in their grand finale at the weekend by more than seven points to deny them a bonus point and score four tries.

This is a requirement reminiscent of what they needed to do when they played Ireland in Paris in their quest to get out of their World Cup pool, and that didn’t turn out well. The Irish defeat will be welcomed by many neutrals as they’ve become a bit too talkative recently, but the high-quality, entertaining Twickenham game was more about the England positives.

There’s long been a clamour in the English media for the team to lose their “boring, boring England” tag.

A few weeks ago I would have repeated the chirp once made by an Irish coach about a similar England quest a few decades ago: “You can’t give a whole nation a full frontal lobotomy overnight.”

But it’s amazing how just a few selections and tactical shifts can bring a different dynamic to your game. The selection of the counterattack-orientated George Furbank at fullback ahead of the safe as a house Freddy Steward was one. Furbank was a surprise selection for the game against Scotland a few weeks ago, and though he scored a try he was criticised by the safety-first section of the English rugby lobby for the mistake that led to one of Duhan van der Merwe’s tries.

With Steward fit, there was an expectation that Steve Borthwick would return to him, but he didn’t, and full marks to him for not doing so. Furbank’s attacking skills, allied to flyhalf George Ford’s willingness to play closer to the gainline and bring his passing skills to the fore, proved the difference between the old England, who would not have beaten Ireland, and the new one that did.

Almost predictably, Ford was criticised for some missed place kicks, with the ignorant argument being put forward that the seven points he missed would have meant England didn’t have to wait for replacement pivot Marcus Smith to win the game with a drop goal.

It is ignorant because sometimes, as with Manie Libbok’s contribution to the three tries the Springboks scored in the first half of the RWC quarterfinal, you need to balance out points missed from the tee with tries that might not have been scored with a different flyhalf.

England looked so much more of a dynamic attacking force than they have been, and while it is the English media way to trumpet the dawn of a new era after just one good win, this time I agree with the English enthusiasm. And a strong England playing positively would be good for the global game.