Scotland vs Italy - Review

How many times have we seen this?  Scotland yet again threw away a lead and lost a match which they should have won.  Whilst you cannot underestimate the heroic Italian performance, led by their talismanic Captain Fantastic Sergio Parisse, the lack of composure and leadership shown by Scotland is both extremely disappointing and is becoming a worryingly ever present trait so close to the World Cup. They now face the prospect of picking up their fourth wooden spoon in the Six Nations.

In the past couple of years under Scott Johnson, Scotland seemed to make steady progress, recording wins against Italy and Ireland in the 2013 Six Nations Championship, finishing third which was their best finish since 2006.  This was a fantastic result for the young side who even boasted a 9-6 win against Australia down under for the first time in 30 years.  Yet where has the confidence, competence and composure gone?  They seem to have taken a step back under Vern Cotter losing all three of the opening matches of this year’s Six Nations.  They saw a narrow defeat against France in Paris, an extremely difficult place to play and come away with a win, and also to Wales at Murrayfield, when a lack of composure in the final quarter of the game cost them the perfect revenge for their 51-3 drubbing at the Millennium last year.

They are clearly a side lacking in confidence and any sort of killer instinct.  After having taken an early 10 point lead against an Italy team lacking structure and a game plan, it looked like plain sailing for Scotland, especially with Haimona struggling to convert from the tee.  So how did they end up losing this Test match?  They somehow pushed the self-destruct button.  They lacked the killer instinct to finish the game off and really should have had the game wrapped up.  Their discipline let them down, giving Italy both possession and field position, allowing the ageing Italian pack to gain an upper hand and work their way back into the game.  This set the tone for the rest of the game where the Scottish pack struggled, and were in constant retreat to the increasingly powerful and dominant Italian pack.  In the final 10 minutes Scotland were desperately defending a 4 point lead, and the crucial moment came with 5 minutes remaining.  Having just been awarded a penalty in the own 22 having successfully defended a scrum, Peter Horne, who had had a fantastic game, missed his kick for touch.  A stupid mistake, one Finn Russell made two weeks ago as well; he had to make touch and it came back to haunt them. 

You would expect an international team of Scotland’s pedigree to be more clinical in the dying moments of the game, but this never showed.   Perhaps this was due to their big leaders leaving the field; both Laidlaw and Ford and been substituted, leaving no leaders on the pitch.  George Clancy even struggled to find a captain in the Scottish team – when asked who the captain was by the referee, not a single Scottish player put their hand up, resulting in Scotland having no leader and consequently no structure.  Two yellow cards and a collapsed maul later, Scotland stared defeat faced once again.  On the other hand, Italy were led from the front by the stalwart captain Parisse, who guided and inspired his pack in the same way he has done for the last 13 years, something that Scotland so desperately lacked.  Yet again Parisse proved to be Italy’s outstanding player, marking his 111^th cap with a famous victory, only his 31^st in an Italian shirt, a figure that should be much higher for a player with his talent.