NOTHING TO SHOUT ABOUT
Townsend’s men grind their way to shut-out of Italians but fears remain for tougher tests to come
HARDLY a performance for the ages. But a win, all the same. Enough to convince absolutely everyone that Gregor Townsend has Scotland heading in the right direction? Let’s not go nuts.
That his team were the better of two fairly average sides in Rome is unlikely to bother the head coach much. Which says everything about how far the Scots have fallen on his watch.
In perfect conditions, against opponents who had lost 24 consecutive Six Nations games, Scotland ran out 17-0 winners — a score that flattered to deceive, as anyone who endured the full turgid 80 minutes can testify.
The bonus point they would have liked? Never really on the cards. About as likely as the Championship committee deciding to award both teams points for entertainment value.
Stuart Hogg might make a case for the scintillating solo try he scored midway through the first half. But, in a game more notable for aggressive defence than free-flowing attacking, a contest when players on both sides were guilty of making poor decisions within sight of the try line, that brilliant intervention by the full-back was hardly typical.
True, Chris Harris touched down to make it 10-0 just after the break, before Adam Hastings — who had endured a torrid afternoon — took advantage of the Italians being down to 14 men by scoring a breakaway try of his own in the final minute.
Yet this was a far from complete performance by the Scots. The accuracy they showed in the tackle and the maul was missing when they got the ball in hand. Kicks went astray. Too many obvious options were taken.
A repeat of this performance will not be good enough to beat France at home. Or Wales away.
If only there was some way to energise the starting XV. If only there was a genuinely world-class playmaker available to play for Scotland…
Yes, Finn Russell would have made a difference. In truth, he could hardly have failed to improve on the performance of Hastings, a fine player whose inexperience and limitations were laid bare here.
He wasn’t alone in playing with something less than distinction. But, as the stand-off and kicker, his shortcomings were magnified.
On a day made for outdoor activities, none of the Scots could be excused for failing to hit peak performance levels.
Warm air, firm ground, dry ball, opponents who hadn’t won a Six Nations match since some of the younger players here were still involved in schoolboy games — it was all set up for Townsend’s men to fulfil their oft-repeated promise of playing ‘the fastest brand of rugby in the world’.
If not here, if not now, where and when might they be expected to cut loose and express themselves?
The Olimpico is no Colosseum, the Italians no fearsome leonine hunters. Home or away, this remains the easiest fixture on the Championship calendar.
Yet we had to wait a little longer than most of the away support would have hoped for the first Scottish points.
After the usual early exchange of scrum penalties while referee Ben O’Keeffe figured out who was doing what to whom in the dark recesses of the most abused set-piece in sport, the Scots actually established themselves in good position on the Italian line. But a Magnus Bradbury knock-on within sight of the whitewash prompted fears that Townsend’s men would, once again, be less than clinical when presented with scoring chances.
When Hastings then missed a penalty from inside the Italian 22, squandering a golden chance to go 3-0 up after just eight minutes, it did not bode well.
Especially as the same player followed that up with a kick straight into touch and a chip over the top that was intercepted and run back 70 yards by Mattia Bellini, the winger sitting the Scottish 10 on his backside to add insult to injury.
Scotland’s forwards kept the visitors in it during the torrid spell that followed, with Hamish Watson and Jamie Ritchie’s work in the maul and ruck crucial.
All we needed was to hang on, see out the inevitable spell of Italia pressure — and wait for one of the Scottish game breakers to do his thing.
Cue Hoggy. Captain, leader, destroyer of broken-field defences. His run from deep inside Scotland territory saw the full-back accelerate between two white
jerseys, then leave opposite number Jayden Hayward in need of counselling as he was left floundering by a swivel-hipped swerve.
Oh, and Hogg made extra sure of the grounding. Because, y’know, Dublin!
Alas, hopes that this breakthrough would set Scotland off on a scoring spree did not materialise.
They had one try called back for a forward pass from Watson, a great pity because both he and Sam Johnson had been brilliant in setting up Ali Price for the touchdown.
But they spent long enough of the first period penned in their own half, and were relieved when a Tommaso Allan penalty rebounded off the upright.
Defensively, the Scots were impressive. Making tackles, stripping the ball, driving the Italians back. They did a lot of very good things.
And their attack gave them the breathing room needed early in the second half, as Harris — in the 17th phase of a jackhammer attack on the Italian line — dived over for the second try of the game.
Hastings, who hadn’t been able to convert the first try from way out on the touchline, hit the post with his attempt to add two points here.
Still, at 10-0 up, the visitors were in control against opponents who had to be feeling fragile, mentally, after five years without a Championship victory.
And then? Meh. So much meh. Until the Italians were eventually overwhelmed by their much more virulent strain of meh-ness.
A yellow card for replacement prop Federico Zani with 11 minutes remaining left them short of bodies.
Which explained how Hastings was allowed so much room to take off down the left wing for his try with a minute to go, the stand-in stand-off celebrating with gusto — and even drop-kicking the conversion from under the posts to make it 17-0.
The Italians threw one last effort at bagging some points but, entirely in keeping with the tone of the afternoon, a chip kick just bounced and skidded out of play with time up.
A fitting end to a game that, for all its brutality, at least saw Scotland avoid the ignominy of making unwanted history.