Sport

Italy destined for a whitewash

Murrayfield match/Scotland 18 Italy 10: It was never going to be pretty, as Italy's captain Marco Bortolami had said, but for…

Ian Malin at Murrayfield
Mon Feb 28 2005 - 00:00

Murrayfield match/Scotland 18 Italy 10: It was never going to be pretty, as Italy's captain Marco Bortolami had said, but for Scotland's supporters Chris Paterson's swinging right boot was a sight for sore eyes. The fullback's six successful penalties should ensure that the only wooden spoons north of the border this year will be stirring the porridge.

Italy, with games against England and France to come, are surely destined for a whitewash which a Scottish side led by Paterson suffered in last year's tournament. A thaw in Scotland also saw the heat off the country's beleaguered coach Matt Williams, for whom this was a first Six Nations victory in eight attempts and a first win at Murrayfield.

Those Scotland supporters may have broken open the whisky at the weekend - a couple of glasses to celebrate victory, perhaps followed by the whole bottle to forget the finer points of the match. The win was a relief but this was one of the poorest games in living memory in the competition.

Watching this scruffiest of dogfights and then tuning into the Wales victory in Paris was instructive. In Paris the glorious Welsh display was one of vivid colours. This was a game in monochrome, racked with tension, full of mistakes and devoid of imagination. Even Bill McLaren might have been tempted to switch channels.

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Simon Taylor, the Scottish backrow back after a year out injured, admitted: "No one would pretend it was a good game as a spectacle but we won. It was a relief but we were not jumping up and down."

Taylor replaced the injured Jason White in a pack that had been steamrollered by the Ireland forwards a fortnight earlier. But the Scottish forwards countered the early driving mauls of the Italians and gradually dominated a side who are still to win a Six Nations match away from Rome.

In a tournament where the value of place-kickers has never been more evident, Scotland were grateful that Italy missed three penalties and a straightforward drop goal while all Paterson's kicks sailed through the uprights. If Roland De Marigny and Luciano Orquera had found their target a late try by Andrea Masi might have been more than a consolation prize.

Williams was grateful for small mercies. In Paris he had been livid that Ally Hogg's try was disallowed for a foot in touch.So when the wing Sean Lamont crashed over for an apparent try a quarter of an hour before the end only for the score to be ruled out by the referee Stuart Dickinson for a forward pass from Paterson, another Williams explosion might have followed.

But he admitted: "No, I thought it was a good call. But I felt we needed a try then to help our confidence and, if we had scored, other tries would have followed. Instead the tension stayed in our game." That tension killed the game as a spectacle, with both sides kicking constantly for territory and playing no-risks rugby.

Italy's flyhalf Orquera is out of his depth at this level and his opposite number Dan Parks is one of life's conservatives. The consequence was few backline moves and the crowd breaking into boos as the teams exchanged aimless kicks upfield.

As the game went on, the Italian forwards tired and heads dropped as those kicks went astray. "Our confidence seemed to drain away," said the visitors' coach John Kirwan.

SCOTLAND: Paterson (Edinburgh); Webster (Edinburgh), Craig (Glasgow), Southwell (Edinburgh; Hinshelwood, Worcester, 70), Lamont (Glasgow); Parks (Glasgow; Ross, Leeds, 76), Cusiter (Borders; Blair, Edinburgh, 76); Smith (Northampton), Bulloch (Glasgow, capt; Russell, London Irish, 76), Kerr (Leeds; Douglas, Borders, 72), Grimes (Newcastle), Murray (Edinburgh; Hines, Edinburgh, 74), Taylor (Edinburgh; Dunbar, Leeds, 74), Petrie (Glasgow), Hogg (Edinburgh). Pens: Paterson 6.

ITALY: De Marigny (Parma); Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais; Robertson, Viadana, 72), Stoica (Montpellier; Pedrazzi, Viadana, 57), Masi (Viadana), Nitoglia (Calvisano); Orquera (Padova; Griffen, Calvisano, 67), Troncon (Treviso); Lo Cicero (L'Aquila), Ongaro (Treviso), Castrogiovanni (Calvisano; Perugini, Calvisano, 63), Dellape (Agen; Del Fava, Parma, 63), Bortolami (Narbonne, capt), Persico (Agen), Dal Maso(Treviso), Parisse (Treviso).Try: Masi. Con: De Marigny. Pen: De Marigny.

Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).