MATCHES between these two sides are usually agonising encounters of the very close kind and yesterday's tense arm wrestle at Stadio Flaminio was no different.
The two sides went into the final seven minutes locked together at 20-20 and they were the same way as the stadium clock moved into the final minute of the match, which is when Italy's fullback Andrea Marcato popped up to sink a 20-metre drop goal which sent the Azzurri fans into fevered, almost hysterical, celebrations. Even Nick Mallett entered into the spirit of the thing by kissing each and every one of his colleagues in the coach's box. It would never happen at Ellis Park!
Among a sea of celebrating Italians, the forlorn figure of Alasdair Strokosch looked close to tears. The flanker was suffering mixed emotions after winning the man of the match award but finishing on the losing side.
It was no consolation to him, or anyone else for that matter, that the three-point winning margin meant that the Scots avoided the ignominy of a second successive wooden spoon by the margin of a couple of points.
Frank Hadden paid the price for picking Dan Parks when the poor fly-half is so far below the standards he set in the World Cup that he is almost unrecognisable as the same player. Italy scored two tries yesterday and his mistakes led to both of them. It was Parks' early pass to no-one in particular that was plucked off the ground by Kaine Robertson, who must have thought that his birthday had come early again. He kicked ahead and, with a little help from his friends, bundled the covering Chris Paterson over his own try line for an attacking scrum. The Scots scrum crumpled and the referee blew for a penalty try before Sergio Parisse could dab down.
The Italians' second try came in the second half and Parisse this time latched on to a Parks pass and charged up the right touchline before throwing a wild-looking throw inside to Gonzalo Canale. The centre scooped it off the deck and raced under the posts. The timing was particularly galling for the Scots who, with a seven-point advantage and all the territory they could ask for, seemed to have the whip hand. Marcato's conversion brought Italy level and the same man kicked for glory with the sand in the timer down to the last grains.
For the second weekend running the Scots were dealt an early injury blow, this one to Simon Danielli's right ankle and it looked painful as the winger was carted off to hospital. That necessitated three changes, with Andy Henderson coming on at inside centre, Graeme Morrison moving from 12 to 13 and Simon Webster reverting to the wing.
For all the disruption, the visitors dominated long periods of this match, after suffering a shaky opening quarter, and that was despite Welsh referee Nigel Owens, who gave every 50-50 call to the home team. Once again Mike Blair played a blinder and if there is a better scrum-half operating in the Test arena right now then it's a well-kept secret. Blair led his troops bravely, tackled everything that moved and scored a sweet individual try with the last move of the first half. He found the guard at a breakdown had abandoned his post and scampered in from 30 metres. If the Scotland skipper made a mistake it came in the first half when his side was awarded a kickable penalty which Blair opted to put into the corner for an attacking lineout. Given Paterson's record with the boot – 33 consecutive successful strikes for his country – Blair might like that call back again.
Having worked out that it is much easier to run around these Italians than it is to run through them, the Scots attempted to play a little more rugby with the ball in hand and, when they did so, it paid dividends. They made more line breaks in this one match than they had managed throughout the first four games of the tournament and Ally Hogg was the first beneficiary. The flanker grabbed the Scots' first try on 20 minutes after good handling from Strokosch up the right flank.
Parks kicked a long-range penalty to give his side a brief lead, until Marcato cancelled it out with one of his own, but the Scots had other opportunities to score in a second quarter that they dominated every bit as much as Italy bossed the first 20.
Henderson found himself one-on-one against scrum-half Simon Picone, but the big centre slipped at the crucial moment. Then Blair ran back one loose kick from Andrea Masi, broke through the white shirts and sent Scott MacLeod headlong towards the Italian try line, but the lock failed to use the support to his right and the moment was lost. Eventually Blair struck what looked like the killer blow immediately before half-time. Paterson's conversion was the last act of the first half and it gave the Scots a 17-10 lead at the break.
They continued their good work at the start of the second half. Simon Webster almost wriggled free on his right wing and Paterson thought he'd earned a free run to the line on the left, only to be brought back for a knock on.
But then, with Scotland deep inside the Italian half and looking to extend their lead even further, Parisse plucked Parks' pass from the sky and the Italian skipper inspired his side to victory. Marcato and Paterson swapped penalties and for a while this one seemed destined to end in a draw until the Italian full-back struck again with seconds left.
See how Scotland and Italy rated at Stadio Flaminio with our match stats here (opens as a pdf)The full article contains 991 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
