SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP Scotland 26 Italy 6: FRANK HADDEN will consider it typical of his luck that, just when his side look as if they might become a force in the scrum, if not quite the Six Nations just yet, he loses one of his cornerstones for four months.
That is the estimate of the Scotland doctor, James Robson, for the stretch on the sidelines ahead of Allan “Chunk” Jacobsen, Scotland’s loosehead, who departed the field with a shoulder injury in the final quarter of the Scots’ first win of this year’s Six Nations.
“Chunk has damaged the pectoralis major muscle adjacent to his right shoulder,” said Robson.
The injury will require an operation, ruling Jacobsen out of the rest of the championship and destroying any hopes he may have been harbouring of making the Lions tour this summer.
After the number that Jacobsen and his brother-in-arms on the tighthead, Euan Murray, did on New Zealand and South Africa in the autumn, here was a return to form for the Scotland scrum.
Far from perfect this win may have been, but it did feature a performance in the tight that had the once-mighty Italian scrum in trouble. The returning Murray will be credited with that, having missed with a rib injury the first two games of the championship in which Scotland struggled with two looseheads in the front row for much of the time.
Of more concern will be that Ally Kellock, Scotland’s only specialist lock on Saturday, is a doubt for the Ireland game in a fortnight, joining Nathan Hines and Jim Hamilton, Scotland’s premier secondrows, in the physio room.
And if the repercussions of that for the set-piece are alarming, then one of the new darlings of Scotland’s ever-improving threequarters, Max Evans, is also a doubt, having taken a blow to the face.
Hadden, meanwhile, in keeping with yet another game for the modern age dominated by defence, was parrying criticism before anyone had had a chance to level any. “A roll starts with one win,” he practically read from a piece of paper at the press conference. “It’s always extremely difficult to play against Italy. With their power up front and their rushing defence, everyone finds it difficult against them.”
Everyone does indeed, these days, not least the spectators. This was a bad game, leavened only by the odd flash of class that Scotland were able to shine on the most mind-numbing of proceedings. Their two tries, in particular, were exhibitions in precision by the threequarters, the first rounded off by Simon Danielli in some style just before the break and the second by Scott Gray just past the hour.
Scotland might have had a couple more late on with the Italians by then broken, but Danielli was worryingly run down by Luke McLean and Dickinson gave a forward pass to Chris Cusiter after his fine break. But two tries were all Scotland deserved.
Which was two more than Italy did, even if they came close themselves on occasion, each of them wild, madcap affairs.
This is Italy’s 10th year in the championship, and they have reached a plateau, unable to move on from their established status as a belligerent outfit capable of pulling off the odd win.
SCOTLAND: H Southwell; S Danielli, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, E Murray, J White, A Kellock, A Strokosch, J Barclay, Taylor. Replacements: C Paterson for Southwell (48 mins), N De Luca for Morrison (68 mins), C Cusiter for Blair (55 mins), A Dickinson for Jacobsen (64 mins), S Gray for Barclay (57 mins).
ITALY: A Marcato; Mirco Bergamasco, G Canale, G Garcia, M Pratichetti; L McLean, P Griffen; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, M Bortolami, A Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse (capt). Replacements: A Bachetti for Garcia (4 mins), P Canavosio for Griffen (57 mins), F Sbaraglini for Ghiraldini (59 mins), C del Fava for Dellape (58 mins), G Rubini for Mercato (48 mins), C Nieto for Castrogiovanni (59 mins), J Sole for Bortolami (77 mins).
Referee: N Owens(Wales).
Guardian Service
