Italy v Scotland:THE WOODEN spoon is the least of Andy Robinson's worries. There is more, much more, at stake in Rome today. It is little remembered now, but England won their first major Test under Robinson, beating the then Tri Nations champions South Africa 32-16 at Twickenham. They duly went on to lose their next four games, and all the confidence and hope brought about by that early result vanished like the breath from an old balloon.
Scotland have played three Tests since they beat Australia in November and lost all of them. Another defeat against Italy and Robinson’s recovery project would be seriously undermined. Morale in his squad is fragile after those traumatic 10 minutes in Cardiff two weeks ago. That much is clear from the remarks of the players in this week’s match build-up. “The first five days we were off after that game (against Wales) were real low points,” said the flanker John Barclay. “We have put that behind us now, we have reviewed it and shelved it. The only way to set it right will be to win today.”
“We have always thought that as a bunch of players – that we are capable of controlling the matches we play in this tournament,” said Barclay’s backrow colleague Johnnie Beattie.
Do so and the prospect of a home match against England will seem like a welcome opportunity. But the danger is that the Scotland players have so much invested in this match that, if they lose it, they will struggle to recover from the blow.
The Italians record against Scotland is good, and they are explicitly targeting this match. As the hooker Fabio Ongaro put it: “We know that both for us and the Scots, this is one of the most important matches of the tournament.”
Nick Mallett, the Italy coach, has the luxury of naming the same side for successive matches, but his counterpart has been forced into making three changes to his team because of injuries.
This will not necessarily weaken the team as the replacements are all experienced: Hugo Southwell, playing at fullback, will be winning his 50th cap, Thom Evans, who finally returned to Scotland yesterday after 13 days in hospital in Cardiff, has been replaced by Simon Danielli, and Max Evans has come into the centre.
ITALY: L McLean (Treviso); A Masi (Racing-Metro), G Canale (Clermont Auvergne), G Garcia (Treviso), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais); C Gower (Bayonne), T Tebaldi (Gran Parma); S Perugini (Bayonne), L Ghiraldini (Treviso, capt), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), Q Geldenhuys (Viadana), M Bortolami (Gloucester), J Sole (Viadana), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais), A Zanni (Treviso). Replacements: F Ongaro (Saracens), M Aguero (Saracens), C Del Fava (Viadana), P Derbyshire (Petrarca), P Canavosio (Viadana), R Bocchino (Rovigo), K Robertson (Viadana).
SCOTLAND: H Southwell (Stade Francais); S Danielli (Ulster), M Evans (Glasgow), G Morrison (Glasgow), S Lamont (Scarlets); D Parks (Glasgow), C Cusiter (Glasgow, capt); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow), K Brown (Glasgow), J Barclay (Glasgow), J Beattie (Glasgow). Replacements: S Lawson (Gloucester), A Dickinson (Gloucester), N Hines (Leinster), A Strokosch (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh), P Godman (Edinburgh), N De Luca (Edinburgh).
Referee: Dave Pearson (England).
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland) and Tim Hayes (Wales).
