RugbyRebels

Minute 25

Italy make 3 passed to straight away concede 10-15m, and then not done with going nowhere a 4th to make it 20. And in doing this with their 1 man advantage they attain a 2 on 5 underlap, they might like to claim it's 3 on 5 but the 3rd man is ahead of the ball carrier they've gone so far back, and in the same channel. There is no sensible shape to their attack whatsoever.

At the next phase they're even hitting the floor before there's a tackle to try and protect the ball. After another pass conceded yet more ground they kick clear through Garbisi, a long kick they cannot possible contest which Furbank collects and kicks back. Garbisi kicks it back again, and Watson kicks it back again again, but this time off the pitch for a lineout just over halfway


Minute 26

Italy win the lineout at the tail, even with England putting up Underhill to contest. Sadly for Italy they drop the ball coming down from the lineout, but at least it goes back and they gather it up before driving the ball 1 out and losing contact. And now they've so many men over the ball kicking is the only option, but again they don't kick from 9 or 10 to compete, it's a long pass back to 10 who boots it into England's 22, Watson gather and passes inside to Furbank, Furbank makes an excellent clearance which finds grass inside the 15m channel and rolls out nearly up to Italy's 22. If there's a purpose to what Italy are even trying to do it's well hidden

Minute 27

Italy win ball at the rear of the lineout but don't feed the 9 off the top, they have the jumper come down and then pass the ball back. The 9 passes to a deep lying Garbisi and he kicks it up into England's half up to the 10m line, and again there's not any chance of a contest. If it's going to be kicked then ball off the top and a box kick seems a much easier kick to make, easy to land about the same part of the pitch, and you might even make it a contest

May sets off with the ball and takes contact, not great footwork but he presents it back well enough, ball back to Faz who kicks out to the right where JJ knocks it on.


Minute 28

Hooray for the scrum, nothing happens


Minute 29

Italy win ball from the scrum and pass down the line until May tackles Minozzi, the net result is a 2-3m gain for Italy with England having had to drift, and they get a 2 second ruck or so. Italy pass back to the left and Watson has to come up into the line to make a tackle on Negri, it's a tackle which Negri makes a couple of metres through. Italy then pass back to the right and lose all their momentum (which wasn't much) as Fischetti in centrefield, their passing is slow, to deep lying players, is happening well ahead of the defence so their handling is under less pressure and they're not interesting defenders and making them commit.

Minute 30

Someone eventually makes a positive carry for Italy, either Polledri or Negri I think, following which they pass over 10m backwards and launch an incontestable kick into England's 22. Furbank returns the kick, off the park and almost up to halfway.

Italy win lineout ball at the front and tap it down to the 9. If you know why Italy want to play ball off the top from the front and not from the tail then answers on a postcard please

Minute 31

Italy play wide left off the lineout and concede 20m or so passing out to the left wing, but Bellini cuts inside Watson and makes the ground up, he gets the ball to Minozzi who on the outside of George threads a kick down into our 22. May's there but not wanting to knock the ball on cannot control with foot or thigh and has to drop and gather the ball back in goal. May sends a clearing kick into touch just outside our 22. So basically passing down the line and kicking the ball away has earned Italy 15-20m territory, kicking for the win we all agree now.

Polledri wins the ball in the lineout, and Itoje concedes a pen for contact in the air. Italy then waste some remaining time on the sin bin by scuffling with Italy.


Minute 32

Italy kick to touch, and it's a good 5-6m short of a good kick to touch, and then win the lineout with Lazzaroni. Italy getting very little action underway with the remaining time on the sin bin

Minute 33

Italy maul and gain a few metres before the maul is stopped, and Mako is adjudged to have dragged it down. Watching on 2x speed I can see an Italian player go down, and Mako is near him so maybe he did just that.

Italy kick the pen to touch for an attacking 5m lineout, and Hill is back from his sit down


Minute 34

Italy win the lineout and drive over our line. But Hill is on the ball and they can't get it down. Attacking scrum

Minute 35

At their attacking scrum Blue 3, Zilocchi, starts on his knees before going lower, penalty White. Italy back up this mistake by getting into some niggle and giving up a further 10m, though it has to be said England are engaging with the niggle

Minute 36

Slade has the penalty to kick to touch down the right. England lineout almost up to halfway.

Wayne Rooney comes on as a blood replacement for Underhill and takes the lineout, but shows up his rugby skills by throwing the ball back over Ben Youngs, to be expected for a first game. Youngs drops the ball off to Slade who makes a show and stop, but protects the ball. Going backwards Youngs merely box kicks down towards the Italian 22 right of centre.


Minute 37

The kick isn't contestable, and Blue 11 evades our chase, or Sinckler as he's known. In one sense it's great Sincks and George work so hard on the chase, and I guess it's about kick resource management over 3-4 kicks but it's comical/frustrating to watch backs avoid them returning kicks. Italy play a couple of phases losing contact before passing back to a deep lying Garbisi who evades Youngs before kicking down towards our 22. Farrell puts an U&U back the other way which Furbank chases. The kick isn't contestable but Italy don't take it cleanly, and then take contact twice before being pinged going off feet protecting their ball.

Minute 38

Farrell kicks to touch not for goal, and it's a pretty good kick about 10m from the try line.

England win the lineout with Itoje and set a pretty good maul which they drive forwards after getting set. Polledri gets pinged for going in at the side and earns a yellow for his trouble.

Minute 39

England kick to touch for a 5m attacking lineout. Ball thrown to Itoje and England try to set the maul. As soon as the maul starts to form people start to go down which I suspect is Italy but they get away with it, and then England are done not being able to get the ball out of the maul.. Billy decides Italy still being under pressure to clear isn't fair so he sticks a shoulder into Negri and concedes a penalty after the whistle, it's petulant at best, frankly he's letting his team down for no possible gain.

Minute 40

Italian lineout from the penalty sees Italy unable to gain possession at the front with the ball coming down on England's side after Hill contests. I thought live Hill applied pressure and it was an Italian knock on but play continues, and from the attempt to gather on our side the ball squirts back on the Italian side, so good work by someone, where Mori breaks down the sideline and hacks it on past May. Earl running back can only slap it further back towards the ingoal but Furbank does enough to stop Mori dotting down and then May grounds the ball to end the half.

Minute 41

England start the 2nd half and they don't make the same mistake as Italy with chasers starting behind their own in-goal, but we do start with 7 or so players ahead of the kicker, as per usual it's ignored. A fairly decent kick out to the left from Faz, and a fairly decent claim by the Italian pod with (I think) Steyn going up for the ball. Italy run a phase infield before setting up a caterpillar where a hand loosely resting on a back represents a bind. Even with this Violi can't get his box kick over Hill, I think to reference a really old post on a different thread he even has his plant foot pointing towards England, how he's going to keep up with technical requirements without reading Rugby Rebels I don't know. The ball wobbles a few metres forwards before Itoje claims.

Whilst the ball was shortly in the air it attracted Italian players like the ball in a playground game of football, whereas England kept more shape, and England choose to attack a 25m or so shortside with a 7 on 5, albeit with the fullback sweeping across.

Not something England can take advantage of as Sinckler drives into contact and loses contact, but even with that the ball is clear left again inside 3 seconds, it might even be a 2 second ruck. JJ drops the ball off to Hill who takes contact and the ball presented back, Youngs passes right not and Itoje takes the ball on for a small gain in contact. But this ruck is slightly slower, partly as Youngs has to clear Lazzaroni to arrive at the ball, and then as he gathers the ball Itoje is pushing it back slightly through Youngs' hands into his wrists so Youngs has to adjust his grip on the ball before passing out to Mako who takes it up into contact and is held in contact. Then however 2 Italian forwards try to fold over the ball to rip it away or force a penalty for holding on, there is a chance to do that but they can't take it, and having put men into the run they're now less resourced in the defensive line. I'm sure some people aren't happy with Fischetti for allowing Youngs the chance to break, but he's covering the ruck and several metres either side of the ruck, and almost any prop is on a hiding to nothing against a 9 left in that situation. Youngs does spot the chance to break, slips through easily and then has just the fullback to beat and one step off his left is enough to defeat Minozzi running across the pitch. Minozzi can claim what else can he do, to which you suggest don't get beaten on your inside shoulder, force Youngs as wide as you can and maybe force him to pass or give yourself a chance to get under the ball don't French fullback it and give up the chance to make a tackle. Really though this score is on the failed box kick and then the decision from 2 defenders to fold over the ball, not win the ball or a penalty, and then to not give away a penalty with the number of covering defenders reduced.


Minute 42

Faz kicks the extras. From a kick basically on front of the posts it does seem a tad excessive to have 60 seconds set aside. 30 seconds would be better in general, but taking time out of the game when you're England in this situation is odd. We should want time to run Italy off the park and score points.

Minute 43

Italy restart out to the left, Billy juggles the catch a little but sets up contact on the edge of our 22, Youngs makes a box kick which Watson contests with Minozzi and sort of body checks it back our way, Itoje gathers sets a ruck from which Youngs immediately box kicks again with no set depth coverage in place. George is our chase and he applies pressure but can't get that close to Bellini who's run back into their 22 to gather a kick which found grass.

Minute 44

Bellini gets a shit kick away under pressure which lands in the centre of the pitch short of the 10m line, and it's this which is why Youngs kicked back to back ball away. But we never get a chance to do anything about it because Curry was inspired to make contact with Bellini in the air, there was no possible benefit to Curry's actions, there was only a lack of discipline and caring about the team, an easy penalty for the ref, and had Bellini returned to earth a little differently it could have been much worse for us, and Bellini.

Minute 45

Italy kick to touch and then run one of the weirder lineouts you'd hope to see. They're a man down so shorten the lineout to 5, fine. The throw to the front, fine. But the 5 in the lineout split front and rear leaving no middle, and when the man at the front taking the ball passes off the top to Violi he has Itoje in his face straight away and there's little he can do about it. Frankly they might as well just throw the ball to England, why was this ever going to work playing ball off the top with nothing to stop England piling through a giant hole?

Violi does well to survive and allow time for support to arrive. Italy run a phase going nowhere as the Italian acting halfback gets scragged by Itoje already back to feet, great work ethic. Then Italy come blind and Negri doing well to drive past Youngs gets an offload away to Youngs. Youngs tries to kick down the line but is being yanked off his feet as he does so and can only whack the ball into touch on the full.

And now somehow despite being able to use the fingers only on one hand I've already lost track of time, so welcome to the 45th minute again, only this time it about to get real.

Italy win the lineout at the rear, and have blocks in place, but don't pass off the top to their 9. Go figure. I think perhaps they might but there was enough pressure on the catcher he didn't feel comfortable getting the ball away in the air, once back on the ground perhaps fearing he'll be clamped in a maul they weren't setting for he lobs the ball at Violi and it's fumbled, scrum white.

Minute 46 (I think)


A comfortable heel for England, we try to drive but it's not moving. We might have kept the ball in but with Sinckler losing his bind the ref wants the ball used. England pass the ball out to the left for Slade to kick off his left, not the smoothest pass from Faz though it's off his right hand, and the kick from Slade coming down a couple of metres over the Italian 10m line is a couple of metres too far. Italy collect the ball and run another phase to end the minute on their own 10m line


Minute 47

A box kick from Violi, way too far to contest. Faz collects in our 22 and kicks the ball back for a lineout to Italy in their half. Worth saying Italy did send chasers after the Violi kick, but from around 10m behind Violi at the point the kick was made, and they look big enough to be forwards, I mean that's weird even if they're backs, but adding an utterly pointless 20-30m of running into the game of 2 forwards is not only not helpful, it's actively harmful, this isn't schoolboy level. 'Tis an excellent kick from Farrell as a further aside.

Italy win the lineout and ball is back to the 9 who passes to a deep 10 who kicks deep to England, I suppose at least this time Italy have chasers ahead of the kicker but it's not remotely a kick they can compete for. May gathers and runs the ball back to around halfway. Itoje picks up as acting 9 and makes a couple of metres going almost up the middle on a little pick play.

Minute 48

Italian defence is set both sides. England come right and it's not awful, but timings don't quite work across the board. Youngs passes to Farrell who has Slade running a hard line and Watson on the pullback. Slade might have been the right choice for Farrell but the timing of the pass and the run didn't perhaps allow him that choice, he gets the ball to Watson who doesn't have wider support because JJ was running wide out in support of Slade. So doing not much wrong presents the ball to Watson 15m behind the gainline with a defender ahead of him and no white shirts behind him on his side of the field, which might speak to why we kick more. Watson steps inside Bellini and then drives several metres through Bellini's tackle, before Youngs passes to Farrell, with Farrell almost directly behind and Youngs twisting a little to find him. Farrell has had enough of this running malarkey and sticks up a contestable kick which Italy don't deal with. England gather just outside the Italian 22 with a knock on advantage.

England loop the ball to their left where, albeit with Italy starting to corner flag en masse we've perhaps a 4 on 2 and the 2 Italian defenders are stood metres apart. A chance to kick you might not think, but the lad wearing 10 for England does think it's a kicking opportunity, which might still work, but it's an awful kick that's far too straight and allows Garbisi to gather sweeping in behind under far too little pressure. Yuck just about describes that decision, yuck just about describes the shit execution. Italy run a phase using ground in contact, which is enough to prompt Violi to box kick and he gets the ball away maybe 10m past the 22 into touch. With the clock running out on the sin bin Polledri rejoins the game.

Minute 49

England win a shortened lineout with Billy as the 9 taking the ball from the jumper returned to ground and passing away to Youngs. Youngs finds Slade who tries to drive into a gap between 2 defenders, not a bad effort, and it's not a bad effort protecting the ball by Underhill. But we still get a 3 second ruck from our own attempt to attack of 1st phase. Next we have Curry and then JJ on the carry, neither really goes anywhere but we do get a good speed around playing the ball. Italy haven't gone away after 2 rucks of 2 seconds each though and once Farrell goes right and frees Furbank into contact we get a 6 if not 8 second ruck. Again it's not awful from England, Farrell is trying to challenge the line but the decision making around going into contact and the physicality isn't there on this play, John Oliver would say it's all a bit Danbury, we might say it's all gone a bit Furbank.

Minute 50

Youngs out to Itoje, a 3 second ruck, Youngs to Slade who again runs between two defenders but there isn't really much space and he makes some inches but it's another 3 second ruck, then to George who steps back into what looks like space on the inside but that space is easily closed we get parity in contact and another 3 second ruck. Next up Youngs passes left again, this time skipping Hill and Sinckler and gets the ball slightly wider to Farrell. We're now attacking down the left in a reasonably sized shortside with a 5 on 3, Farrell goes to the line and has Underhill running the hard line but pulls it back to May who has a 3 on 1 with the fullback in behind somewhere, sadly the passing from May to Furbank to JJ allows the defence to drift across and we never even get a man running down the line at the 15. JJ drives between 2 defenders coming back infield a little and makes a few metres, and we get another 3 second ruck. Next it's Sinckler to carry and it's parity in contact but we play the ball a little quicker and Youngs has May offering one out who can drive into a little too much space between the close in Italian defenders, we can't get quick ball sadly but Italy are pinged for going offside and Farrell sticks the ball out for a 5m lineout

Minute 51

Itoje wins lineout ball in the middle and England set the maul. George has the ball at the back and with both halfbacks and both centres joining the ruck it's not likely this one is being spread wide. Italy can't hold up the maul and the only doubt with the try is the ref amusing getting confused as to which line denotes in-goal

Minute 52

Faz sticks over the extras

Minute 53

Italy kick out long and to the right, Curry takes the ball and advances just to the edge of the 22. Why Italy persist with not contesting kicks I don't know, if it was working for them fair enough, but it's clearly not. Youngs box kicks too far, it's into the Italian half and they run back almost to the 10m line before Itoje makes the tackle. Italy pass one out, run into contact with a latcher and get stuck in a maul and it's a scrum turnover for White.

Minute 54

England control the scrum, pass left and Slade makes an easy kick down the line and into touch. Too easy.

Minute 55

Italy win the lineout and run into centrefield where they're pinged for not releasing, or would be by actually Earl is pinged for a no arms tackle. An interesting tackle for the game because if he goes higher he can make contact to the head of a carrier lowering himself into a contact area, but to go that low presents some issues with getting the arms legitimately involved. They're going to have to be very strong to force the defensive answer of a soak tackle, although with a carrier going that low you could stay tall and push them down.

Minute 56

Italy kick the penalty down the pitch rather than into touch. Who knows, maybe that's their intent because their other tactics have been shunt.

Billy has the ball and runs up over halfway into Polledri and Bigi, he wins contact and going to ground presents the ball ball only to have Itoje arriving in support shin it out on the Italian side, it happens. Italy pick up the floor and make a forward pass, but a slight one that wouldn't be an easy call. Italy run a couple of phases, perhaps trying to play slowly wide to the edge of our defence again but get scragged well behind the gainline so end up kicking the ball away, the Italian chase is well ahead of the kicker but no relevantly so given how long the kick is. Furbank gathers and kicks to almost the Italian 22, Italy kick it back just into our 22, May kicks it back to their 22 (why does league mock rugby again?), and finally Cana kicks to touch almost up to halfway

Minute 57

George throws long to the tail, right down the middle too. Earl taps it down to Youngs who passes to Farrell, Farell gets it to Slade, and outside Slade England have a 4 on 2, but with Cana pushed up Slade can't get the ball wider but it's not a bad attempt off 1st phase, it just doesn't quite line up. Slade takes contact possibly looking to get his arms through the tackle, but to no avail. Ball back to Youngs and after one play off the lineout Youngs box kicks the ball down our right.

It's a shit kick from Youngs, nowhere close to being contestable and Bellini takes it easily. Youngs might claim our chasers were George (again) and Itoje but May wouldn't have been close to that. Bellini chips over our chase and gathers before Sincks and George try to hold him up for a maul turnover but he gets a knee to floor then the ball back to Violi who passes out to Polledri, Polledri struggles a little but gets to ground up against Hill and Violi passes back to a deep lying Garbisi just inside the 22


Minute 58

Garbisi kicks down the pitch to Furbank who returns it into the Italian 22. Other than I'm going to kill someone if autocorrect changes Furbank to Burbank one more time the other item of interest is Thorley was outside Furbank when the kick was made and not running off a standing start, but it's Furbank metres ahead on the chase, not sure if Thorley was badly blocked or merely jogging on the chase.

This time May gathers and he sets off running it back rather than kicking it, he breaks through a tackle from Garbisi and then spins out of a tackle by Cannone, had he spun to the right he'd have been fine but he spins left into isolation and gets done for holding on. It's not been a good day for May, and this is a bad moment in a not good day. Italy kick to touch down the left around 6-7m from our line.

Minute 59

Italy win lineout ball at the front maul a moment get held up and it's a scrum turnover. It's almost incisive by Italy in that at least they failed quickly. Does Chris Grayling coach Italy now?

Minute 60

England win the scrum, pass to Slade who takes it that little further infield to set up a ruck and given a better angle for the exit kick. Youngs makes an excellent clearing kick almost up to halfway

Minute 61

Italy throw to the rear where it's loosely shouldered down on Italy's side, Earl tries to break onto the loose ball, Canna tries to half-volley the loose ball with the outside of his right foot. Bellini gets the ball and goes to ground in contact. Curry gets onto the ball but once the ref decides he's off feet and tells him to get away Curry decides he knows better, that decision doesn't work for Curry, penalty Italy and not Curry's first soft pen of the day.

Italy kick to touch about 20m from our line, they win the lineout at the rear but can't get the ball cleanly to the 9 and are busy passing and running the wrong way to support their own attack, but it's another pen with Itoje getting done for playing the jumper in the air. Not Itoje's first soft pen of the day.

Minute 62

Italy kick to touch about 7-8m from our line. I prefer not being 5m out because the defence is further back, but if he was trying to get a 5m lineout that's not the bravest touch finder you'll ever see.

Italy throw long over the lineout to no one in particular but Morisi gathers and sets a ruck. Italy play another ruck and remain roughly in the middle, but they've done a curious thing in their resourcing. The lineout was on the left as they look at it, but now on the left they've got backs in roughly some sort of shape but with an underlap, and on the right they've arguably got an overlap but it's all forwards and with them having worked across from the lineout they're in 2 lines of 3, more of a rectangle than the diamond attack shape, and not really in a shape to play. Italy head left where Canna shows and goes whilst well short of the defence, once he meets the defence he's back peddling and now Italy are running back to support a play about as far away from their forwards as they could've reached. I think they're just doing stuff and hoping England ignore them and the ball, if there's any actual intent it's well hidden. They do retain the ball but they've been pushed back beyond the 22

Minute 63

Italy set about working their back towards their try line, Itoje with 2 tackles in quick succession before Italy play to the left touchline before Curry on his knees gets an Italian ball carrier into touch.


Minute 64

Hill wins the lineout at the front and England set a maul. Ben Youngs puts up a box kick down the right touchline from the edge of the 22 to halfway, it's another excellent kick and as the Italian catcher comes down he's instantly got Thorley and Earl for company, the Italian backs there are unable to stop Earl pushing the ball back (loose) on England's side, Garbisi in particular should look forward to some ruck sessions because he's essentially useless in the moment, perhaps not surprisingly given just how green he is. Stuart picks up the loose ball and to make Garbisi feel better drives straight into him, Garbisi doesn't do much but Negri is there to hail Stuart down. Thorley picks and goes on the fringe which does make much ground but blimey, multiphase rugby, and then Genge does the same. We nearly get 3 quick play the balls but Hill having arrived to clearout over Thorley kicks the ball back into Thorley standing up to discourage counter rucks and that slows Youngs getting the ball away, but under a little pressure he passes to Faz at 1st receiver. One of the defences I've made of Faz is he looks clunky because he's so square which despite his lack of running holds a defence, but here he runs sideways to the left. Not sure what was called but both Billy and JJ are running hard(ish) lines and perhaps Billy might be the right recipient but it's pulled back to Slade who has a 4 on 3 overlap but with JJ have run up as well as Billy on a hard line there's quite a disconnect from Slade to the next attacker in the line. Again it's not bad as such from England, it just doesn't happen to have worked, and mostly attack doesn't. Slade makes some ground between the 9 and the 13, something the 9 and 13 were probably both happy to see rather than Billy. Billy then gets over the ball to stop any counter rucks, but he's not on it, here's just there rather than ready to play and Polledri drives him out of the ruck too easily. Then Morisi drives George out too easily and piles through to kick the ball, was that a whole 4 phases we played before getting passive over our own ball, that should often Billy and George, that should offend a Vets team. That pressure draws a handling error from Youngs trying to pick up at the base and it's a scrum for Blue

Minute 65

Was to a large extent covered in analysis (such as it is) of the previous minute and so to


Minute 66

England win a free kick at the scrum, Violi runs off with the ball and the ref upgrades it to a pen. Farrell kicks it to touch around 18m from the Italian line.

The longest minute by minute will now be paused again as against my better judgement I'm required to go and pick and red to go with some lamb, such are the perils I endure

It was a bog standard supermarket red, a Malbec from Argentina done by AG (Argento). And it wasn't awful, but it wasn't much better than alright