[2024 Six Nations] Italy vs England - 03/02/24

[Geordie]

Rusty, lack of cohesion as expected, work to do but some green shoots of the future...

Plus there was a noticeable change of tactics.

 

[IT157]

Borthwick England once again setting worst ever records. The guy is ******* clueless.

At least we didn't lose like we did against Fiji.

 

[die_mole]

clearly shows that the URC is even more of a farmer's league than the premiership.

italy gonna continue to blow in the second half until they get champions cup experience.

 

[IT157]

Thought Slade or Freeman should have been man of the match.

 

[Scotty]

Every Italy try has been too easy, our defence needs alot of work. But id say overall we have looked the better team today.

Roots has been solid motm is abit much but worked hard.
Freeman has been great, motm contender
Dingwall has been pretty anonymous tbh, to me anyway.
CCS looked hungry for work and physical when he came on
Smith should have started/come on earlier.
IFW made a good tackle...what do you inspect in a few min where he didnt get the ball.

Hopfully weve done enough to build and challenge Wales next weekend.

 

[AlRums]

Superb English accent there

 

[IT157]

Superb English accent there

Sounds more Scottish than most of the players in the Scottish squad...

 

[TommiG88]

Ummm. Some positives, some negatives. As soon as we took the lead we played conservatively where we just played for field position taking few risks.

Forwards were decent but we really need to move on from Cole.

Negatives
Care I thought was slow and ponderous
Don't think Dingwall is the answer to 12
Daly for being experienced with a silly yellow and was caught a couple of times in defence
Poor on the edges in defence
Really lack some different forms of creativity

Pros
Defence showed a lot more intensity
Attack showed some promise
Pack was generally good and a decent set piece
Itoje, Steward, Freeman, Slade and Mitchell were my standout players

 

[dirty harry]

First hit out, rusty 20 from England but once they settled they looked ok.

That 40 - 65 period England up the defensive tempo and Italy just did Italy things! Lineout fell apart.

England 6/10 started slow, got into the game and then tempo brutalised Italy (despite that last slip try).

Italy 5/10 started well, when the pressure came on they crumbled, but probably deserved a LBP

 

[AlRums]

Six nations website scoreboard gone a bit wrong here

 

[Scotty]

Borthwick England once again setting worst ever records. The guy is ******* clueless.

Chill TF out. We won the game, showed some improvement in attack and blooded some new players.

Yes we made a fair few mistakes but its a platform to build on.

In the WC we had no attack at all. We had to kick it because all we could do well. We have some improvements to make but i dont get the anger.

Seriously you think SB is a miracle worker who can create a 6N winning team in a couple of weeks training together?

Negativity is going to far

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Chill TF out. We won the game, showed some improvement in attack and blooded some new players.

Yes we made a fair few mistakes but its a platform to build on.

In the WC we had no attack at all. We had to kick it because all we could do well. We have some improvements to make but i dont get the anger.

Seriously you think SB is a miracle worker who can create a 6N winning team in a couple of weeks training together?

Negativity is going to far

No I expect SB to not be repeatedly setting records for worst ever England performances in our entire history. You don't need to be a miracle worker to not be literally the worst England side. Why do people always respond to criticism of him setting literally worst ever records as if we were expecting to win the 6N? I expected 4th and not continuing to get worse.

 

[Deleted member 88328]

Playing Italy first might have really helped them. England looked really woeful.

 

[BPM]

No I expect SB to not be repeatedly setting records for worst ever England performances in our entire history. You don't need to be a miracle worker to not be literally the worst England side. Why do people always respond to criticism of him setting literally worst ever records as if we were expecting to win the 6N? I expected 4th and not continuing to get worse.

Is that not disrespectful to an improving Italian side? They had a dreadful RWC but let's not forget they pushed France very close last year.

 

[BPM]

England were mixed but honestly, that's what most of us expected …

 

[BPM]

Superb English accent there

How many Scottish accents in your entire squad? At last Roots has an English parent and isn't a residency or grandparent poach.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Is that not disrespectful to an improving Italian side? They had a dreadful RWC but let's not forget they pushed France very close last year.

I don't think so, I'd be surprised if they got within 3pts of anyone else this tournament - their attack was really nice when it got going but their breakdown and lineout was really poor

I think this result will age really badly for England

England were mixed but honestly, that's what most of us expected …

I thought England would look worse but win by more tbh, like 10-12pt win

Never expected our defence to look so much worse, especially as there was so much room for improvement

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Is that not disrespectful to an improving Italian side? They had a dreadful RWC but let's not forget they pushed France very close last year.

In isolation maybe but it's off the back of our first ever loss to a tier 2 side, nearly followed by our first ever loss to another tier 2 side, our first ever 6N with a negative points difference at the end, biggest loss to France, most points conceded to Wales etc... This isn't a one off, it's a pattern. I had hoped he would be getting on top of it but he's just gone and set another 2 worst ever records for England to add to the collection with some absolutely woeful defence, the extent of the overlaps out wide were laughable. The attack has improved, and that improved attack still couldn't score as many tries as Italy.

I expect to see the slide being stopped but there is little I have seen today to suggest that.

 

[Scotty]

No I expect SB to not be repeatedly setting records for worst ever England performances in our entire history. You don't need to be a miracle worker to not be literally the worst England side. Why do people always respond to criticism of him setting literally worst ever records as if we were expecting to win the 6N? I expected 4th and not continuing to get worse.

Weve changed our defence coach since the WC and our defence system and then chucjed in 10 12 13 who havnt ever played together and 2 of them didnt go to the WC, defence wise it was always going to be tough to be great in defence. And we made mistakes.

This is not an italy team of old that is a complete joke of the competition, we are not in a great place and still building i think we are going in the right direction even if we arnt playing well.

I just dont get the anger, this game is a positive for the team, how teams have gone in the past doesn't matter as its about where we are played well in alot of areas.

Dont get me wrong alot to improve upon but still a positive

 

[McTallshort]

Enjoyed that. Very competitive. Good to see Italy playing well with ball in hand and England applying good pressure through their kicking game and defense. Centres still not great for England and Italy's set piece needs to improve but otherwise is was good.