Cheers & tears
Emotional Cotter says goodbye as Scotland end Six Nations campaign with plenty of cause for optimism
SOLID, relentless and thoroughly professional. Scotland got the win they wanted to bid goodbye to Vern Cotter on a high note, and they also did it in a way that summed up the head coach’s approach.
It was not a spectacular game, and Italy were disappointingly dull, but the home team concentrated well to claim the bonus point that kept them in with a chance of second place. However, after France’s win over Wales and Ireland’s defeat of England, they had to settle for fourth.
There was the odd flaw in the performance. Some chances went a-begging, and captain John Barclay was sin-binned 10 minutes into the second half during a period of serious Italian pressure. But, after the humiliation of losing so heavily to England last week, this was a performance of commendable commitment and concentration.
It was also an encouragingly allround display. The cutting edge in attack was there all right, as it had been in the previous home wins over Ireland and Wales, and if anything the defence was more impressive, as Scotland did not concede a point in a Six Nations match for the first time since they beat Wales 20-0 in 1993. The Italians, who have lost their last dozen matches in the tournament since winning here two years ago, were up against it from the first scrum. Scotland got a good push on, a penalty resulted, and Stuart Hogg scored from distance.
There was a lot of kicking from both sides in slippery conditions, but when it came to the kicks that matter most – penalties – Italy stand-off Carlo Canna had an off day. He missed his first attempt, which would have put his team level at the end of the first quarter, and went on to miss two more before the break, by which time Scotland were 15-0 ahead.
The first try came just after Huw Jones had been injured making a half-break. Patient play through the middle took Scotland to within a few metres of the Italian posts, they widened play to the left, and Finn Russell finished off the move for a try which he converted himself to put Scotland into double figures.
Matt Scott, who had come on for Jones, got the second three minutes before the break. When Jonny Gray stole a line-out, Ali Price lobbed over the top. Hogg and Giovanbattista Venditti went for it in goal, and the Italian could only spill the ball forward into the path of the Gloucester centre.
The visitors enjoyed a lot of pressure in the third quarter, and should have scored after a line-out maul only for right-winger Angelo Esposito to be held up by Hogg and Scott.
Again, they should have scored when they attacked once more with a maul before spreading the ball right, but again Hogg saved the day with a timely tackle.
It was that man Esposito who was stripped of the ball, and although it went backwards to Edoardo Padovani the full-back spilled forward. The roar from the capacity Murrayfield crowd that greeted that denial of a score was as loud as the ones to celebrate Scotland’s tries, and rightly so.
If it is wrong to talk of turning points in games that appear so one-sided, that was at least the moment that snuffed out Italy’s hopes of a reversal in fortunes. They had spent a dozen minutes pressurising Scotland and had nothing to show for it. With Barclay back on, an untidy kick and chase produced Scotland’s third try. Hogg chipped ahead, and the Italian defence was outstripped by both Russell and Tim Visser, with the latter getting ahead of the stand-off to touch down. Russell did convert, however, making it 22-0.
Scotland had almost 20 minutes in which to get the bonus point and eventually, after heavy pressure, it came with seven remaining. Russell made the crucial pass with a swift move, Hogg took it on, then Tommy Seymour finished it off in the right corner.
Russell added the two points and that was that: job done.
With five points in the bag, Scotland could only wait for the afternoon’s other two matches and hope they produced the sequence that would give them second place.
France’s win over Wales quenched that hope by tea-time, but that result was perhaps no more than a minor frustration at the end of a satisfying afternoon.
It was also the first time in 11 years that Scotland have won three matches out of the five, and a far cry from Cotter’s first season, when his side suffered a whitewash. The team that Gregor Townsend now inherits has a lot of growing to do, but there is no denying that it is travelling firmly in the right direction.
these guys put in, the honest review from last week and the time we spent on the field this week.
“It was nice to be able to finish at home with the bonus-point win. It was the objective at the start of the game, and I thought the players worked through it well. It wasn’t always perfect, but we got there in the end.”
Conor O’Shea, whose first Six Nations as Italy’s head coach ended in a whitewash, tried to emphasise the good work his team had put in, while not ignoring the many deficiencies they had shown. “I said to the players that 29-0 was an incredible result that did not reflect the match,” the former Ireland full-back said.
“There was very little in the game in the first half and it was 15-0. We still felt we were in the game, and we dominated the first 15-20 minutes of the second half. We got a yellow card [when John Barclay was sin-binned] and came away with nothing.
“It’s a difficult thing for the players to keep on taking, and we need to finish our opportunities.
“I felt there was little between the sides overall, but it’s never easy coming to Murrayfield. The biggest issue we have – one of many issues – is confidence. The gap is not massive and 29-0 is very hard to take for all of us as we didn’t warrant it.”
O’Shea knows he has a massive rebuilding work on his hands; or at least part of it will be on his hands, because the malaise in the Italian game runs a lot deeper than the national team.
It certainly does not look like getting any easier for him anytime soon, which will be good news for Scotland, who are due to meet up with Italy again in the first match of their respective summer tours.