Key events
53 mins. Penaud chases his own kick into the Italy in-goal, causing panic that Capuozzo eventually ends by being tacklen in possession behind his own line.
Romain Taofifenua is on for Willemse.
YELLOW CARD! Charles Ollivon (France)
And Ollivon is given his ten minute break immediately afterwards. Not a great few minutes for the former captain.
PENALTY TRY! Italy 21 – 22 France
51 mins. Allan booms an oustanding kick to the corner after Ollivon hit Bruno high in the tackle. The Azzuri pack catch and drive it and on the second shove they are this close to forcing the ball over the line but Ollivon illegally pulls the maul down.
Ref Carley and his team decide it stopped a definite try and give a penalty one instead!
PENALTY! Italy 14 – 22 France (Tomas Ramos)
46 mins. Ramos slots three after Italy are offside.
“Carley best player of the first half, had a major input in all the Italian points so far” says Olivier Bourassin.
Well, yes, in that he blew the whistle to award the penalties that gave Italy either territory or a chance to kick posts. That’s only an issue if you believe the pens were incorrect, and they were not. Blaming Carley in this situation is a bit like blaming the sirens on the ambulance for your injuries that necessitated its attendance.
42 mins. Italy manage something resembling a reasonable exit from the kick-off, and France have their first attack of the half from the resulting lineout. It looks a little laboured until Dupont fires a flat pass to Penaud who runs into the gap Menoncello has left by mystifyingly stepping inside in defence.
Penaud chips over Capuozzo, but Varney covers and grounds it in-goal.
SECOND HALF!
Ramos boots us back into the action
France conceded nine penalties in the first half, in a game they are winning quite comfortably. That’s shocking.
HALF TIME!
PEEEEEEP! The teams head into the tunnel.
PENALTY! Italy 14 – 19 France (Tommaso Allan)
40+1 mins. A few more bumps up from the Italy forwards lead to France giving away another breakdown penalty.
Allan decides that quite enough of this, calls for the tee and takes another three points with the boot.
40 mins. The last attack of the half comes from an Italy lineout deep in French territory. The work it with several carries from the forward tight around the ruck, before the ball rolls loose and is regathered. After 12 phases France’s defence is holding strong
35 mins. Some back and forth kicking is followed by Dumortier having a jinking run before being pulled down. The ball comes to Fickou who slides and angled grubber towards Penaud racing up the right touchling, but it’s just too long and rolls into touch.
33 mins. To come back to things France need to worry about; in addition to the breakdown, that was the first meaningful 22 entry from Italy and it resulted in a try.
TRY! Italy 11 – 19 France (Ange Capuozzo)
32 mins. On another advantage, Italy are attacking on the France 22, and the intricacy of their attacking patterns is outstanding. Varney is at times running double loops (!!) in one phase, which is causing some consternation in the visitors defence.
Eventually, the ball is worked left to an arcing Capuozzo, who does in-to-out step on Alldritt to allow him to dive into the corner to score. That is an incredibly good finish.
30 mins. France are well on top here, but Shaun Edwards will not be happy at all with the breakdown as his side are penalised again, this time for entering from the side. It’s near halfway, so Allan boots it to touch on up the left touchline
TRY! Italy 6 – 19 France (Ethan Dumortier)
26 mins. Another 22 entry, another cross kick, another try for France, this one for Dumortier on the left touchline to score on his debut.
Ramon converts.
24 mins. The overriding theme of Italy’s horrific exits from their own 22 continues, this time with Allan being charged down by Dupont while kicking from inside his in-goal. There’s a brief heart-in-mouth moment as it looks like the France captain may get to it, but it rolls dead.
PENALTY! Italy 6 – 12 France (Tommaso Allan)
22 mins. Some outstanding attacking patterns and handling from Italy follows a big maul drive, and France are scrambling all over the place in their own half. Les Bleus do a good job of containing, but are once again a little lazy rolling away at the breakdown and penalised.
Allan tees it up and nails it.
TRY! Italy 3 – 12 France (Tomas Ramos)
19 mins. It’s a catch and drive from a France lineout in the Italy 22 that the home side do well to hold. Les Bleus send it to the backs and eventually Ntamack booms a cross-kick towards Penaud who has Capuozzo for company. Neither of them can claim it and the ball bounces in-goal for Ramos to ground following up.
There’s some TMO checks of the missed catch and the Ramos grounding, both of which have no issue.
Ramos fails to convert from out wide.
15 mins. TRY NOT GIVEN!
Italy catch the restart and try to fling it about in their own 22 for some reason, which inevitably breaks down horribly. Bruno manages come off his wing to mop the ball up, but is then snaffled as he’s shaping to due a daft chip-kick, and that puts France back on the ball, via Alldritt. He is hauled down short of the line and on the recycled ball Ollivon is over and thinks he’s scored!
But wait! The TMO has a look and he lost control of it over the line. No Try!
PENALTY! Italy 3 – 7 France (Tommaso Allan)
13 mins. Italy are rewarded for some solid carries by making France hold on too long and not release in the tackle. Allan call for the tee and puts his side on the board.
12 mins. France have some more possesion just inside the Italian half, but the Azzuri are defending with manic energy and once again break up the French phases. Italy will have some possession of their own near halfway.
9 mins. Dupont has a dart left off the back of a big French maul in the Italy half. It looks like he’s running up a blind alley, but somehow he as usual makes some thing out of it, throwing a pass back inside that launches some forward phases. The attacks fizzles out due to some good breakdown work from Italy.
This game really hard enough for Italy without attempting laboured kicks with nobody guarding around the ruck. The frustrating thing is the home side have looked good when in possession.
TRY! Italy 0 – 7 France (Thibault Flament)
4 mins. A few phases from Italy look tidy, until Varney tries a little chip over the top from the base of the ruck which Flament towers over and blocks before grabbing the ball and running it in to score.
Ramos kicks the conversion
2 mins. France deal with the kick-off by gathering, resetting and Dupont clearing to touch with 0% nonsense. Italy come back at them from the lineout and create a little gap for Capuozzo out wide, but the ball is slightly behind him and snaffled by Ramos.
This releases France up the right, but Ramos’s pass inside to Penaud goes to ground with open pasture and a try beckoning. Big chance missed.
Bright start for both sides in the sunshine.
KICK OFF!
It’s a long boot from Allan to get us underway
The teams are on their way out into a lovely late winter day in Rome. Anthem formation is assumed by both squads and we’ll soon be underway.
Pre match reading
You may have heard there’s a behind the scenes Six Nations documentary being pulled togethe for Netflix. Read more about the explosion of programmes the likes of this here..
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Teams
Italy are without Paolo Garbisi, their Montpellier superstar, who is sidelined with injury and replaced with Tommaso Allan. Last year’s Cardiff hero Padovani is on the bench, with Coach Crowley preferring Pierre Bruno and Tommaso Menoncello as his starting wings.
Galthie’s France have some absentees of their own to address, with Jonathan Danty and Cameron Woki injured. Yoram Moefana and Thibauld Flament replace them at centre and lock, respectively. Former captain Charles Ollivon continues his return from a long injury layoff by slotting into his seven shirt.
In the backs, there is a debut on the wing for Top 14 scoring machine, Ethan Dumortier.
ITALY: Ange Capuozzo; Pierre Bruno, Juan Ignacio Brex, Luca Morisi, Tommaso Menoncello; Tommaso Allan, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (captain), Lorenzo Cannone
Replacements: Luca Bigi, Federico Zani, Pietro Ceccarelli, Edoardo Iachizzi, Giovanni Pettinelli, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Fusco, Edoardo Padovani
FRANCE: Thomas Ramos; Damian Penaud, Gael Fickou, Yoram Moefana, Ethan Dumortier; Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont (c); Gregory Alldritt, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch, Paul Willemse, Thibaud Flament, Uini Atonio, Julien Marchand, Cyril Baille
Replacements: Gaetan Barlot, Reda Wardi, Sipili Falatea, Romain Taofifenua, Thomas Lavault, Sekou Macalou, Nolann Le Garrec, Matthieu Jalibert
Preamble
Vince Lombardi said that “winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all time thing”; for six years, winning for Italy was a no time thing – until Cardiff in 2022. The last minute heroics from Capuozzo and Padovani vs Wales began to repoint the structural cracks in the Italian team and pushed them on to their first ever win over Australia in the Autumn. It was not all plain sailing post Cardiff, as a poor defeat vs Georgia and a hiding from the Springboks would demonstrate, but it feels like the last ten months have signalled new epoch in Italian men’s rugby where, to return to paraphrasing Lombardi, they are looking to do things right all the time to make winning a habit.
Much of this remains work in progress, with the U20s looking stronger than ever, the continued development of their strongest senior playing group since their previous peak in the late 2000s, and a sensible coach in Kieran Crowley.
They’d do well to reflect on all this after they inevitably lose today; they are playing the 2022-23 vintage of France, after all.
Fabien Galthie’s men will certainly be looking to make winning an all time thing, right up to the World Cup Final in Paris this October.
Today is the the next step for both teams, albeit for differing reasons.
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