'We very nearly shot ourselves in the foot'
Well a win's a win but it certainly wasn't pretty! Brian Ashton held his hands up and admitted that he got the balance of the side wrong but Italy did defend particularly well and you have to give them a bit of credit for the way they played, especially out wide for their try which was very well worked. We could have done with seeing a little bit more of that ourselves!
I thought we would have played with a little bit more flair and enterprise and really attack them down the 10 channel, get quick ball and let our speedsters do something on the outside. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get anything going there.
We very nearly shot ourselves in the foot and if Italy hadn't given those silly penalties away, it would have been closer. They had nothing to lose and really put their bodies on the line and they are a fantastic developing side. The lines that they ran out wide were nice and their 13 had a very good game. Their back row ball carried very well, kept it tight and held on to the ball well. We should have played to our strengths like the Italians did. The variation from England just wasn't there and it just seemed a little subdued in my opinion.
Farrell had another adequate game but we appear to be missing someone with a right foot to have another kicking option outside Jonny.
'We appear to be missing someone with a right foot to have another kicking option outside Jonny'
On the positive side, it's good for the guys to get a game like that out of their system before the big games coming up against Ireland and France. What a game of Rugby it was at Croke Park, or 'Choke Park' as the papers will no doubt say! I thought Ireland were very unlucky to lose at the death and they'll be absolutely kicking themselves to lose like that, switching off defensively and missing two kickable penalties.
The atmosphere at Croke Park when England visit will be electric but you have to take away variables such as the crowd and the weather and just concentrate on the game. England will get a pretty hostile reception out there anyway but that's nothing that the guys can control. What we can control is what we do with the ball. We struggled to get out of our own half against Italy, a little bit like we did against Scotland and we can't afford to let that happen against Ireland.
I played for the Saxons on Friday night and really enjoyed it. To play with all those really talented young guys is great fun and to win 32-5 at Raven Hill was an impressive score. We threw away a few penalties that we should have had so the score could have been even bigger. I set up a nice try and wobbled a drop kick over! A few guys did themselves absolutely no harm at all and David Strettle is absolutely electric. Mark Cueto also came back and had a nice run out although we didn't get him quite enough ball.
There's a two week break before the next game so it's back to Guinness Premiership action for London Irish before England take on Ireland. And what a game that's going to be!
As for a prediction, I'm going to go for a 15-15 draw!
Mike Catt.
11th February 2007
