Super Saturday, Game 1: Italy v Wales

First topic message reminder :

 
ITALY v WALES
Saturday 21 March 2015
KO: 13:30 (local)/12:30 (UK/Ireland)
Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Referee: Chris Pollock (NZR)
AR1: JP Doyle (RFU)
AR2: Luke Pearce (RFU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

***********************

A. Teams

ITALY

Luke McClean (Sale Sharks); Leonardo Sarto (Zebre Rugby), Luca Morisi (Benetton Treviso), Andrea Masi (London Wasps), Giovambattista Venditti (Zebre Rugby); Kelly Haimona (Zebre Rugby), Edoardo Gori (Benetton Treviso); 1 Michele Rizzo (Leicester Tigers), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Leicester Tigers, capt), Martin Castrogiovanni (RT Toulon), George Biagi (Zebre Rugby), Joshua Furno (Newcastle Falcons), Francesco Minto (Benetton Treviso), Mauro Bergamasco (Zebre Rugby), Samuela VUNISA (Zebre Rugby)

Replacements: Andrea Manici (Zebre Rugby), Alberto De Marchi (Sale Sharks), Dario Chistolini (Zebre Rugby), Quintin Geldenhuys (Zebre Rugby), Robert Barbieri (Leicester Tigers), Guglielmo Palazzini (Zebre Rugby), Luciano Orquera (Zebre Rugby), Enrico Bacchin (Benetton Treviso).

WALES

Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon); George North (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont Auvergne), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Liam Williams (Scarlets); Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys); Rob Evans (Scarlets), Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Racing Metro), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Rhys Gill (Saracens), Scott Andrews (Cardiff Blues), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).

B. Head to Head

15 Played 15

2 Wins 12

12 Losses 2

1 Draws 1

19 Tries 49

12 Conversions 40

31 Penalties 45

4 Drop Goals 1

224 Points 463

Griff wrote:Can you explain the Cawdor nickname please SS?! Heard it a few times now!

His dad owns Cawdor Cars. It's not the most interesting of nickname origins to be fair.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Griff wrote:Can you explain the Cawdor nickname please SS?! Heard it a few times now!

His dad owns Cawdor Cars.  It's not the most interesting of nickname origins to be fair.

Hmmm. Yes, not quite as exciting as I'd hoped. Sounded (or looked) like a name from Lord of the Rings. Very disappointing!

Still, the background of the name Cawdor itself is quite interesting http://www.llandeilo.org/cawdor-6.php Amazing what you can find whilst doing 294 km/h on a train from to Turin to ROME

PenfroPete wrote:Still, the background of the name Cawdor itself is quite interesting http://www.llandeilo.org/cawdor-6.php Amazing what you can find whilst doing 294 km/h on a train from to Turin to ROME

I never even considered the background to it before Actually far better nickname after all.

Linked to the 'Scottish play' too http://www.cawdorcastle.com/The-Castle/Shakespeare-Heritage.aspx

our team owes us one good performance at home, the first two matches in Rome have been awful, pressure is all on Wales' shoulders, so just do the math

Penfro, the moment I read the Earle of Cawdor (and later it said Thane Of Cawdor) my mind went straight to that play.

Spidey - the benefits of an education at Milford Grammar Anyway, just waiting to pull out of Milano Centrale. Looking forward to Rome, as always

PenfroPete wrote:Spidey - the benefits of an education at Milford Grammar Anyway, just waiting to pull out of Milano Centrale. Looking forward to Rome, as always

Been drinkin' yet Penfro ?

LORD - had one or 2 glasses of wine with lunch and dinner

Doesn't seem to be picking up all of what I'm posting LORD. Last reply also had a question about the Italian pack, do you think they'll go well? I think the French bossed them. I have loaded my 'fantasy xv' with our backs, so the boys up front had better hold their own

PenfroPete wrote:Spidey - the benefits of an education at Milford Grammar Anyway, just waiting to pull out of Milano Centrale. Looking forward to Rome, as always

I wouldn't know that, the Grammar was gone well before I was in school (or even born )

Anyway, enjoy the weekend mate.

SPIDEY, ha ha you can ......

PenfroPete wrote:Doesn't seem to be picking up all of what I'm posting LORD. Last reply also had a question about the Italian pack, do you think they'll go well? I think the French bossed them. I have loaded my 'fantasy xv' with our backs, so the boys up front had better hold their own

Well Parrise is out, but Castro is in, so you can make of that as you will. I do not think that is a good exchange of players if you ask me, but they can have all the pens they want from the scrums they will not kick them with as we have seen all 6N, but knowing my luck they will have a stormer with the boot for a change.

Personally, I think Wales are professional enough to go out and do what is needed, I just hope we do enough to keep the interest for the other games.

Prosecco time on the Frecciarossa train

PenfroPete wrote:Prosecco time on the Frecciarossa train

Get it down you Penfro, you luck barsteward, work has realy picked up for me at the moment so away day trips are off the menu for me, I will be lucky enough to get to the club for the anthems tomorrow, have a good one, please get very drunk, and please when you come back on here Monday/Tuesday, tell us how much the trip was a blast, Rome is starting to be a popular trip, I have been over the years but I am yet to get to go to their new stadium, I will think of you when I have my first pint tomorrow, have a great time.

Cheers LORD We take this as one of our holidays so don't fly back until Wednesday. Going to Ostia Antica on Monday, off to Frascati on Tuesday. Have a great day tomorrow

LordDowlais wrote:

PenfroPete wrote:Doesn't seem to be picking up all of what I'm posting LORD. Last reply also had a question about the Italian pack, do you think they'll go well? I think the French bossed them. I have loaded my 'fantasy xv' with our backs, so the boys up front had better hold their own

Well Parrise is out, but Castro is in, so you can make of that as you will. I do not think that is a good exchange of players if you ask me, but they can have all the pens they want from the scrums they will not kick them with as we have seen all 6N, but knowing my luck they will have a stormer with the boot for a change.

They don't need to go for goal, they can kick to the corner and their driving lineout has been impressive.

Totally strange situation tomorrow... Even if we manage to win by 40+ points, I won't really be able to enjoy it - since I'll have to sit through two more games gnawing my hands before the result is clear. And if against the odds we do somehow manage to be crowned champions - there'll be nothing to show on TV to cheer over! Well, I guess we'd all pile down Cardiff Bay on Sunday for a trophy hand over..?

Too much is/was being made of where the 'Real' Cup, and where the one 'Dud' Cup, is located.

If I had money and influence, I'd have it shipped it to Italy (I mean the one that will be in Scotland, the Dud one )

I couldn't care less that a team would have to laugh, and shout, and throw drink over themselves, and bite their medals to check for 'authenticity', and all that selfie guff................... without the Actual Cup (Real or Dud).

Winning is what matters.  If a team needs a Dud cup to do that and feel special about themselves then if England don't want to give up theirs, I'd certainly hand the Dud one over in a flash to keep everyone happy.

PenfroPete wrote:Cheers LORD We take this as one of our holidays so don't fly back until Wednesday. Going to Ostia Antica on Monday, off to Frascati on Tuesday. Have a great day tomorrow

Have a great time mun

Italy U20s v Wales U20s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbctwo?area=wales

1 minute on the clock. Great try Italy converted from the touchline.

Penalty try to Wales, 81st minute;
Italy U20s 21 v 23 Wales U20s

Cardiff Dave wrote:Penalty try to Wales, 81st minute;
Italy U20s 21 v 23 Wales U20s

Lets hope for a similar result tomorrow

Great effort by Italy. They weren't afraid to play! Wales left it late but as soon as they started that last camping down at the Italian tryline that was always going to be game over for the boys in blue.

Notch wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Penalty try to Wales, 81st minute;
Italy U20s 21 v 23 Wales U20s

Lets hope for a similar result tomorrow

I see what you did there. Naughty boy.

SecretFly wrote:Great effort by Italy.  They weren't afraid to play!  Wales left it late but as soon as they started that last camping down at the Italian tryline that was always going to be game over for the boys in blue.

Unlike last weeks boys in green in Cardiff. Though if you had spun it wide you'd of had us. Can't see young Cian getting a short pass in Edinburgh today.

Must admit I am a little surprised at how many pundits and media hacks think wales will put a cricket score on Italy and win this.

I think most discerning welsh fans in all sincerity give the team little hope of taking the pot, in some ways happy to be in the top three having played good rugby despite injuries and rueing a poor forty minutes in the opener costing us another grand slam.

Really looking forward to this afternoons game and seeing how the challenge effects us. Can we play fast open high scoring rugby as well as hard earned hard fought battlefield stuff?

Wales need to put a huge score on Italy today. What a fantastic challenge for sport. That said, I don't think an Italian would need anymore motivation than reading the press's attitude to their forecasted impending demolition.

Not sure i belive that this Wales team can shake off their conservative, workmanlike shackles enough to put themselves in contention.


A win in Rome is a good result, anything more is a bonus. Us fans will be waiting on other results today.

Agreed. I've said all along that we should aim to win, obviously, but the the odds of a big score are pretty much non existent. We haven't put 40 points on anyone since the last World Cup (Fiji?). We haven't beaten Italy by the 40 points, ever. We've done 39 but that was back when we played a more running oriented brand of rugby and Italy were a lot worse. The gap has closed significantly, they're playing at home and we're a much more conservative team now.

So for me this will be a fairly tight encounter to start. If we can get a decent lead and keep injury free then we may pull away a bit towards the end when we bring on the likes of Tips and Scott W. Maximum 15-20 point win for us at best I feel. History tells us that when we are favourites or have to win big then we always struggle (apart from against England at home 2 years ago).

Not wanting to sound too exited/confident, but Wales have to beat Italy, where as Ireland need to beat a Scotland that are not wanting to get a whitewash, and England need to beat a France with a point to prove. I don't see either of the other games as certain wins for England or Ireland. Whereas I can not see Wales failing to pick up the win (and if we do fail to win we aren't real champion material), so worrying about running up cricket scores may not be necessary.

I like that thinking SS, but not sure we'll see 2 upsets in one weekend. That's pretty rare these days.

Italy without Parisse is a wounded wounded duck, if you get my meaning. Twice weakened - not so much by his value as a player (and that's there in b&w) but more so for his presence, to calm them and give them the leadership they require.

So he is a big loss and Wales can realistically begin to think about exploiting that - perhaps in the second half - perhaps in the first. But if Wales get Italy mentally panicked then it becomes a potential cricket score game.

The only alternative is that in my opinion, Parisse's influence over his team mates can sometimes be too oppressive. He burdens himself with too much and can often dampen the resolve of players around him who probably think him a bit of a 'show boat'

So??? Will his absence give some of them a desire to make a bigger impression without him around them telling them to 'give it to me!'

But Wales have the potential to really hurt this Italy side.

Well the best of luck to you Welsh fans today. Hope you get a good win

What happend to the other Bergamasco (the winger)

Love the Italian national anthem in a packed stadio...

I bet Haimona slots everything today. Sods law...

Not sure about that penalty - looked like they both challenged for the ball

Heaf wrote:Not sure about that penalty - looked like they both challenged for the ball

Yeah, borderline. Think the fact that the Italian just sort of half heartedly threw one arm to compete in the end cost him.

Haimona going off... He did slot everything he could I guess.

Looks like Haimona's arm is broken

Bad luck for Italy

At least Otquera seems better this week - couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo last week ...

Horrible game so far, really poor.

Hope it doesn't carry on like this though ...

Wales blow it in 15 seconds

It almost got interesting there and then the knock on ...

Followed by the inevitable scrum offence ...

Nachos Jones_1 wrote:Looks like Haimona's arm is broken

Yeah, poor lad, though if you saw the replay, it was a textbook example of how a half hearted tackle is infinitely more dangerous to the tackler, then going full bore.

By Roberts reaction there, I was first unsure if he grounded the ball. He did but his reaction to try and ground it after the tackle was a concern. Much better from Wales now though, great kick from 1/2p.