Barclay lays down the law to Scotland
Italy may dare to dream, but this is a match Scotland have no right losing. The visitors have won eight of the past nine games against the
Azzurri and are, says Italy captain Sergio Parisse, comfortably the best Scotland side he has faced.
Italy, on the other hand, are a side in transition under Conor O’shea, which has meant losing a lot. If they are beaten today, they will have lost 17 Six Nations matches in a row, equalling the record of France either side of the First World War.
For Scotland, a failure to win in Rome will mean their first campaign under Gregor Townsend has been a failure.
“It leaves a sour taste if you go away from camp having done some really good things but having lost the final game,” said captain John Barclay. “The summer tour was a bit like that, where we lost poorly in the last game [to Fiji].
“We’ll try to push the speed of the game because we know that makes it uncomfortable for whoever we play against. If you play with that tempo it is uncomfortable for us, but it is even worse for the opposition. There is no secret that is how we try to play. It will be no different against Italy.”
After winning three matches last year, Scotland’s minimum from the campaign is now to match that number, hopefully with a try bonus. “We want to finish three from five as we did last year,” said Barclay. “There are different permutations to where we could finish in the table, but if we had three from five we could walk away thinking we have played some good rugby.”
Barclay has endured painful defeats at the hands of the Italians, having lost on two of his three previous visits to Rome. Although he believes Scotland should win, he can also see how Italy’s new approach could really test Scotland if they are as inaccurate and passive as they were in Cardiff.
“They are trying to shift away from that forward-oriented play, which they are very strong at, and they’ve got a sprinkling of stardust in the backline now,” he said. “There are a lot of players we really need to keep an eye on. Matteo Minozzi has had a fantastic Six Nations and my opposite number Sebastian Negri has carried well, given them a go-to man, and taken a bit of pressure off Parisse.”
Captain Parisse wins his 134th cap today knowing that defeat would set the unenviable record of making him the first player to record 100 Test losses. Asked where he gets the motivation to carry on playing when he knows his side will lose most games, the No 8 points to the incredible strides taken by Scotland under previous coach Vern Cotter and now Townsend.
“Everyone has seen how Scotland are playing in this moment,” said Parisse. “They’ve had a great Six Nations and are no longer the Scotland team of five, six years ago, who were the team to beat for us. This will be the most difficult game we’ve played at home this season. We know what we have to do to be more competitive.”