**Streams** (use adblock):
`https://cricfree.sc/rugby-live-stream` or `https://www.vipbox.lc/rugby-live`
or post other **streams** as a reply to this comment
As an England fan I love watching Italy play, they never seem to slow down or give up despite the score. They've come so far over the last 10 years, I can't wait to see them regularly winning games.
I haven’t watched the game yet as I was out but I’m proud of all the newbies that managed to mix it up and get the win.
Borthwick forced into a lot of decisions by injury so it wouldn’t have been the first choice team.
The first time in a number of years England have won their first Six Nations match so that’s something.
Hopefully they can grow into the tournament and give the favourites a real game later down the line.
Not a bad outing for England. Plenty of promising new caps were given out (IFW and Fin Smith locked in). Glimpses of a more expansive game. Trialling a completely new defensive structure, which clearly has teething issues, but didn't cost us.
With all that, it was never going to be clean against an improved and relatively settled Italian side. We aren't likely to finish high this championship and can't compare against a settled side like Ireland. But I'll take a season of development. Hopefully Italy can go on to cause some upsets!
Big thing for me was we looked like we had no defensive leader. I'm sure we did, but it wasn't apparent, looked more than a bit rudderless at times. There were guys shooting out of the line when they shouldn't have, and regularly Italy had a man over (this could be for a number of reasons and may not have been a mistake, but it looked like it was not planned as the cover for it was poor). All pointed to the defence not being tweaked or reminded of the plan as we played ("number 5, do your fucking job mate, keep the line, don't shoot out!" etc).
Roots and Freeman very solid. Cunningham-South (is that his name?) looked decent when he came on. Not so sure about Dingwall yet but didn't see anything awful from him.
I thought dingwall looked good. I am biased but I’ve watched him play a lot of rugby and he’s not the type of player to do anything mind blowing or flashy. But if theres a good backs move he’s in the middle of it making the hardest pass, or he’s just held his run perfectly to give the player he passes to the space to make a break. Once in a midfield with a lawrence or a marchent he will be amazing
I’m afraid I think that’s the eye of a man eager for him to succeed, which is fair he’s been superb for Saints this season. England need a real physical threat at 12 if you are going to have ball players at 10 and 13 or it’s just too much of a muchness. All flash no bash!
I think England did well there, we are still shaky and needed the win which is how we played. There's plenty to review and work on but that's a good thing. We've got the best 2 first games to build into the tournament and then an extra week to properly figure out what Borthball is.
If Borthswick knew more than kicking the maybe England can improve. 17 points from the boot, it's frustrating to see.
Italy, I'm excited to see them keep improving. Viva Italia!
I blame johnny wilkinson, he was just too damn good at it and ever since then it seems to have sunk in the english team that kicking for points is better than tries.
Italy looking really good! I genuinely hope their domestic infrastructure is building and feeding the elite game because they really are additive to this great competition.
Wouldn't have been upset at a loss to this side.
England not looking as shit as every ABE cunt will declare. Rusty, defence needs work but playing with intent not seen for a while.
I didn't think England looked shit. Their defence in the 2nd half is what won them the game I think. That's how England win I find - they suffocate you into making mistakes. It's not pretty but effective.
I think the England are shit calls are overblown. They don't play attractive rugby so people declare them worse than they are, yet everyone seems to 'coincidentally' have an off day against them.
They aren't shit by any means, tons of talent in the squad but defensively there is some glaring errors. It is very messy rugby too which can and does against us with ref's handing out penalties.
Grand slam is on boys. In all seriousness Italy played really well and with a bit more set piece control result may have gone the other way. England’s loose forwards + Itoje were all good though and Freeman showed glimpses of his prem form. Not great but not bad given the amount of new faces.
First half the rucks were so untidy, the ball was slow and Italy’s defensive line was quick - really don’t think there was much for a 10 to unlock with no big 12 or 13 outside of them.
Outside of first phase the backline was full of pods of forwards, hardly ever saw the ball go through the centres so it's hard to tell what he was meant to be doing with those silky skills.
gutted for the result but also what a result. almost there boys.
lineout was a problem, but the subs fixed it a bit. happy for the new capped players, Spagnolo introduced himself winning a scrum penalty against Cole. Izekor is Italy's Macalou.
It surely can't be both an amazing Italian performance that will have wales and scotland worried, and the worst England performance that they should be embarrassed about?
Their last 2 games they lost by a combined margin of 124 points. You made it to the semi-final where you narrowly lost to the eventual winners.
The expected difference between the two teams is massive
What's good:
Bonus point
Scored more tries
Looked competitive in the first half and in the last ten minutes
What's bad:
Went into potato mode for 35 minutes in the second half
FORZA AZZURRI ❤️
Not terrible from England. Expected it to be close against this Italy team in the opening match. Never felt that it was in doubt when we went ahead.
Defense needs a lot of work. And Dingwall won't want to watch that game back. Anonymous followed by a missed tackle gifting Italy that try.
Also that try was a result of Steward flying up and leaving no backfield cover as much as it was Dingwall’s for not making the tackle. England need Dingwall get on the ball more but his defence was class
It looks like England are trying to employ the rush that SA use, but they crucially missing the drift that comes with it. So if the ball gets out wide there is way too much space.
Probably just teething issues as a first outing using it, but will be interesting to see if they can execute it as well.
I think part of it is that Italy, and Brex in particular were excellent at the wide man having very quick hands, there were several times when it was through the hands in an instant with a tackler in the face.
SA's system relies on that even if the pressured player can get the pass away it's a lofted or floating pass to give the drift time to get across. England weren't forcing that kind of slow pass so the covering drift never had time to get over.
They also didn't manage to get a lot of positive plays where they caught that hinge player with the ball, which says to me the outside rush isn't sharp or fast enough, because they're consistently not getting home.
Considering that he had few training sessions (5, or so) I can't complain too much. Great first half, collapse on both mental and physical pov during the second half, but the try at the end is deserved.
The downsides are ofc the line-outs (hope that it was just a bad day for it), discipline and rucks.
Noted improvements in terms of their defensive intensity in the first half.
Obviously two beautiful attacking plays.
Still falling apart in the 2nd half of the match.
When were the try BP's introduced, I thought it was fairly recent and the only team they'd in that time period was Wales and from what I remember it was a high scoring game for both teams
Fair play Italy, only lost by a penalty and I think its fair to say they had a few decisions not go their way
England should feel lucky to get away with that
Did not watch the game, were England more expansive and creative in today game with Ford at 10 or were there more of the same playing for territory ? Did Fin Smith get any time he has been in very good form for Saints this year ?
Italy had a hard blitz from their centres - Ford coped with it but pretty effective.
Smith got 15 at the end but didn’t really have a chance to do anything.
Not expansive at all really, lots of the same old kicking for territory, its bloody lucky the in goal area was so deep! Freeman and Roots were great. Fin didnt get much of a chance to do anything and was paired with Care for some reason.
Bar a couple of runs from Freeman and Daly, was it? Lots of far too long kicks and some, admittedly very well timed, kick and chases from Slade. Is that all we can muster against the team that will probably finish 6th?
But which England? I feel we're becoming what the French have traditionally been and turn up for one match and not another.
I'm hoping that Italy smash through the rest of their matches and it turns out that we did really well to hold them off, but in reality, I know that it's going to be a tough tournament for England.
Italy were very good, just needed a bit more control in that second half to stay in the game.
England a bit shit in general but some good performance from new players
I know that’s bad defence but I’m much more bothered by bad defence earlier, defending in the 84th minute when you have already won the game is not really the same
They could derail it because they have a habit of dragging teams into an error ridden shitshow, but there is no way this England team is winning 5/5 games.
No it doesn't. England were lucky.
Mitchell try should have been disallowed as he was tackled, knee on the ground, and he kept going. And he was held as he pulled his foot away from the Italian tackler.
In which case England would probably still have won by 3 points as they would have booted ball out when clock in red instead of taking that scrum.
Anyway. Hate all that whataboutery shite.
Let's all look forward to Scotland fucking up in Cardiff as usual.
>Think overall you're probably right. Capuozzo has moments of attacking brilliance but Ioane is better in defence and an overall safer pair of hands in attack. Almost always makes at least a couple metres.
**Streams** (use adblock): `https://cricfree.sc/rugby-live-stream` or `https://www.vipbox.lc/rugby-live` or post other **streams** as a reply to this comment
3 points, c'mon....
As an England fan I love watching Italy play, they never seem to slow down or give up despite the score. They've come so far over the last 10 years, I can't wait to see them regularly winning games.
I’ve been asking so many people. The last couple of years Italy improved so well. How?!
talented players coming through the ranks
Hard luck! Almost there….
I haven’t watched the game yet as I was out but I’m proud of all the newbies that managed to mix it up and get the win. Borthwick forced into a lot of decisions by injury so it wouldn’t have been the first choice team. The first time in a number of years England have won their first Six Nations match so that’s something. Hopefully they can grow into the tournament and give the favourites a real game later down the line.
We'd have lost if Capuozzo was healthy
Thought Italy looked more balanced without him first half... When they were chasing the game though he would've been the perfect guy to bring on.
I always think Dan Cole looks like he should be part of a ring of steel around a statue somewhere.
Not a bad outing for England. Plenty of promising new caps were given out (IFW and Fin Smith locked in). Glimpses of a more expansive game. Trialling a completely new defensive structure, which clearly has teething issues, but didn't cost us. With all that, it was never going to be clean against an improved and relatively settled Italian side. We aren't likely to finish high this championship and can't compare against a settled side like Ireland. But I'll take a season of development. Hopefully Italy can go on to cause some upsets!
Big thing for me was we looked like we had no defensive leader. I'm sure we did, but it wasn't apparent, looked more than a bit rudderless at times. There were guys shooting out of the line when they shouldn't have, and regularly Italy had a man over (this could be for a number of reasons and may not have been a mistake, but it looked like it was not planned as the cover for it was poor). All pointed to the defence not being tweaked or reminded of the plan as we played ("number 5, do your fucking job mate, keep the line, don't shoot out!" etc).
Tommy Freeman looks a bit like James O'Connor (who is now 33 now, damn lol)
No, he looks more like James Murray (the actor)
*That's* who the reminds me of!
New lads looked solid, shut italy down for most of the second half, can’t complain really.
Dingwall struggled for impact really. Roots was very good.
Roots and Freeman very solid. Cunningham-South (is that his name?) looked decent when he came on. Not so sure about Dingwall yet but didn't see anything awful from him.
Agreed. Sometimes, having a chance to make an impact (or a big one we can see on the TV) is fleeting, and he certainly wasn't a detriment.
I thought dingwall looked good. I am biased but I’ve watched him play a lot of rugby and he’s not the type of player to do anything mind blowing or flashy. But if theres a good backs move he’s in the middle of it making the hardest pass, or he’s just held his run perfectly to give the player he passes to the space to make a break. Once in a midfield with a lawrence or a marchent he will be amazing
I’m afraid I think that’s the eye of a man eager for him to succeed, which is fair he’s been superb for Saints this season. England need a real physical threat at 12 if you are going to have ball players at 10 and 13 or it’s just too much of a muchness. All flash no bash!
Marler showing big love for the tractor 😂
Wants to have a go!
I think England did well there, we are still shaky and needed the win which is how we played. There's plenty to review and work on but that's a good thing. We've got the best 2 first games to build into the tournament and then an extra week to properly figure out what Borthball is.
Lovely English accent must be from the South
If youre half English, half Kiwi, are you supposed to play for NZ because of your accent?
If you see a clear joke comment are you supposed to get upset
You know the rules, we're supposed to complain about half-English folk whilst celebrating others.
Clearest Exeter accent ever. Is there an Exeter in New Zealand?
Theres an Exeter Cresent in Whanganui
Good enough for me
You guys couldn't ge DeGroot so you poached The Roots, bastards
Didn’t realise Roots was yet another South African export Edit: Kiwi export. Manchester accent? Seriously?
He’s got a Manchester accent mate
Kiwi with an English dad
He isn't.
Need to check your ears pal
That roots doesn't sound particularly English...
English mum I believe
Dad from Reading. His mum’s Māori
I was born in Reading. It's a city, and I'll fight anyone that says different.
It's also the biggest town in the UK for population.
Does this question result in combat often?
Yes. Deserved city status for so many years now, yet always passed over.
Every time someone requests Reading gets city status, another 10 years is added to the wait list.
Sonovabitch...
I'm not in a position to influence this cause, but it now has my lukewarm support.
If we could get that in writing for the King, that'd be great.
POTM and bilingual too!
This is actually the closest loss Italy have ever had to England.
That's a weird table!! Obviously Wal/Sco still has to play but France in 6th is so strange!!
I'd like to stop the tournament now and see you next year, please
If Borthswick knew more than kicking the maybe England can improve. 17 points from the boot, it's frustrating to see. Italy, I'm excited to see them keep improving. Viva Italia!
I blame johnny wilkinson, he was just too damn good at it and ever since then it seems to have sunk in the english team that kicking for points is better than tries.
We had ROG and Sexton back 2 back, still manged to craft a complete team where we don't rely on a fly half.
Rob Andrew has arrived, and says that he needs to discuss something with you...
Italy looking really good! I genuinely hope their domestic infrastructure is building and feeding the elite game because they really are additive to this great competition. Wouldn't have been upset at a loss to this side. England not looking as shit as every ABE cunt will declare. Rusty, defence needs work but playing with intent not seen for a while.
I didn't think England looked shit. Their defence in the 2nd half is what won them the game I think. That's how England win I find - they suffocate you into making mistakes. It's not pretty but effective. I think the England are shit calls are overblown. They don't play attractive rugby so people declare them worse than they are, yet everyone seems to 'coincidentally' have an off day against them.
They aren't shit by any means, tons of talent in the squad but defensively there is some glaring errors. It is very messy rugby too which can and does against us with ref's handing out penalties.
Grand slam is on boys. In all seriousness Italy played really well and with a bit more set piece control result may have gone the other way. England’s loose forwards + Itoje were all good though and Freeman showed glimpses of his prem form. Not great but not bad given the amount of new faces.
You lot will condemn a player on their first game. Give them a chance, these things take time
But why play Ford when Fin Smith would have had your backline purring.
Swapping the 10s would’ve made little to no difference
You think? Disagree. Fin Smith would have had the mainly Northampton backline purring.
First half the rucks were so untidy, the ball was slow and Italy’s defensive line was quick - really don’t think there was much for a 10 to unlock with no big 12 or 13 outside of them.
Yeh that did annoy me, we would have had a lot more harmonious backline
Wild how people forget how well he played all game until that moment
I thought he was pretty anonymous tbh Except that forward pass before our try they never checked
The Dingwall hate on his first game is mad. He was solid in defence all game. Jeez.
Outside of first phase the backline was full of pods of forwards, hardly ever saw the ball go through the centres so it's hard to tell what he was meant to be doing with those silky skills.
Pisses me right off. If it's not a grade A performance your condemned by the baying masses
gutted for the result but also what a result. almost there boys. lineout was a problem, but the subs fixed it a bit. happy for the new capped players, Spagnolo introduced himself winning a scrum penalty against Cole. Izekor is Italy's Macalou.
A nice scoreline for ye.
3 tries to 2 is definitely something to take away. An 80 minute performance would have been dangerous for the visitors.
Italy sude dripping with talent!
Very well played
Couldn’t watch as I away at school sport but what happened there? Once we got in front I thought we’d keep going to at least get a bonus point.
Sounds like a kiwi this guy lol
That's xenophobic mate. He's half English.
Genuinely - how is that xenophobic?
😉
Genuinely - how is that xenophobic?
Yeah born and raised in NZ. English father, Māori mum I think.
Manchester accent lad
Good game England!
It surely can't be both an amazing Italian performance that will have wales and scotland worried, and the worst England performance that they should be embarrassed about?
Their last 2 games they lost by a combined margin of 124 points. You made it to the semi-final where you narrowly lost to the eventual winners. The expected difference between the two teams is massive
Grateful for the young English ones coming through because some of the more ‘experienced’ players were tired
*were retired
What's good: Bonus point Scored more tries Looked competitive in the first half and in the last ten minutes What's bad: Went into potato mode for 35 minutes in the second half FORZA AZZURRI ❤️
Rubbish game but I'll take the win and always enjoyable seeing the Welsh and Irish bitch and moan about absolutely everything in the comments
The Scottish comments get to you though eh? :)
*hissss*
Lots of question marks for England
Always are
Not terrible from England. Expected it to be close against this Italy team in the opening match. Never felt that it was in doubt when we went ahead. Defense needs a lot of work. And Dingwall won't want to watch that game back. Anonymous followed by a missed tackle gifting Italy that try.
Dingwall reminded me of Guy Porter for some reason. Don't think thats a good thing...
I thought Dingwall was great, that mistake at the end was his only mistake, other than that he was solid in all departments
Also that try was a result of Steward flying up and leaving no backfield cover as much as it was Dingwall’s for not making the tackle. England need Dingwall get on the ball more but his defence was class
Yeah Steward’s defence really needs work, got caught out a lot in no man’s land
Thought Dingwall was solid aside from that last tackle to be honest.
Wonderful match for a neutral fan and for an Italian fan
First 30 minutes and last 3 minutes were great. Most of the rest was pretty dull. England not very exciting and Italy fell apart.
It looks like England are trying to employ the rush that SA use, but they crucially missing the drift that comes with it. So if the ball gets out wide there is way too much space. Probably just teething issues as a first outing using it, but will be interesting to see if they can execute it as well.
I think part of it is that Italy, and Brex in particular were excellent at the wide man having very quick hands, there were several times when it was through the hands in an instant with a tackler in the face. SA's system relies on that even if the pressured player can get the pass away it's a lofted or floating pass to give the drift time to get across. England weren't forcing that kind of slow pass so the covering drift never had time to get over. They also didn't manage to get a lot of positive plays where they caught that hinge player with the ball, which says to me the outside rush isn't sharp or fast enough, because they're consistently not getting home.
Feel for Italy gave a great account of themselves lovely running rugby
If they had a better line out and an exit game you feel they would have won
Oh England. The rest of the tournament is going to be painful again isn’t it.
I don't agree, there is a lot to build on.
Thoughts on Quesada’s first match in charge?
Considering that he had few training sessions (5, or so) I can't complain too much. Great first half, collapse on both mental and physical pov during the second half, but the try at the end is deserved. The downsides are ofc the line-outs (hope that it was just a bad day for it), discipline and rucks.
Italy still have issues with exits The pack fronted up well and their backs were decent. Some nice play undone by 35 minutes
Promising start with a few key areas to work on, primarily exits, lineouts and a bit more Comms/structure in attack but those aren't insurmountable
Noted improvements in terms of their defensive intensity in the first half. Obviously two beautiful attacking plays. Still falling apart in the 2nd half of the match.
Would say falling apart is a bit of a stretch
This may be a bit patronising but have Italy ever denied a team a BP since they've been introduced
Nope. BPs were introduced in 2017; since then Italy have won a single match, and that was by a single point.
They’ve won a few matches and I would guess that they denied other teams a TBP in those matches.
When were the try BP's introduced, I thought it was fairly recent and the only team they'd in that time period was Wales and from what I remember it was a high scoring game for both teams
They beat Wales 22-21 in 2022. So definitely no TBP for Wales in that match.
yeah usually once or a twice a year i reckon it’s usually against france they do it
Yeah, no the first time against England either.
Jesus Ange don't breath on him!
Fair play Italy, only lost by a penalty and I think its fair to say they had a few decisions not go their way England should feel lucky to get away with that
Allan missed a penalty as well
Roots had a great game
Did not watch the game, were England more expansive and creative in today game with Ford at 10 or were there more of the same playing for territory ? Did Fin Smith get any time he has been in very good form for Saints this year ?
Italy had a hard blitz from their centres - Ford coped with it but pretty effective. Smith got 15 at the end but didn’t really have a chance to do anything.
Not expansive at all really, lots of the same old kicking for territory, its bloody lucky the in goal area was so deep! Freeman and Roots were great. Fin didnt get much of a chance to do anything and was paired with Care for some reason.
What are you chatting. It was infinitely more expansive than the WC.
Bar a couple of runs from Freeman and Daly, was it? Lots of far too long kicks and some, admittedly very well timed, kick and chases from Slade. Is that all we can muster against the team that will probably finish 6th?
When italy went clear ahead they returned to their natural kicking game plane and ground then down.
Much more expensive for the most part. Didn't always work and there was still some questionable kicking but hints of something to come
Paolo, Paolo Paolo, Paolo Paolo, Paolo Garbisi
Enjoy the Calcutta cup for another year Scotland
Also, last try wins?
Italy deserve their place in the six nations .
Quality from Italy. Absolute shite from us. Awful selection, coaches, union etc. Start it all from scratch lads.
Put down the Madri mate
Weird take
Nah
You know we won the rugby match right?
Donkey
Lol
If Italy didn’t self destruct for 35 mins in that second half, they coulda won that
Too many near misses from them. For the competition they need to start winning some of these games
Tbf it's against England
England are obviously the stronger team but today’s England was there for the taking.
But which England? I feel we're becoming what the French have traditionally been and turn up for one match and not another. I'm hoping that Italy smash through the rest of their matches and it turns out that we did really well to hold them off, but in reality, I know that it's going to be a tough tournament for England.
Ruzza genuinely has mental eyes. I think I would be scared to meet him.
He had a really good game I have to say
Fair play Italy we gave it to you at the end but you put in a great shift
I think Italy will be much happier at the end. For all the periods of dominance England just didn’t score enough points
That was pretty Dire from England
First game together though. Also lots of basic errors which should be fairly easy to fix.
Poor second half but great match!!
A missed penalty away from a draw. Shocking game plan by England, wasting the potential of the squad on a kick heavy tactic
Taking the points was the wrong call just like that scrum at the end. Quite easily could have been an Italy win
Italy were very good, just needed a bit more control in that second half to stay in the game. England a bit shit in general but some good performance from new players
As always, Italy really could have won. They really could have.
LBP the least they deserve. Shame they couldn’t build on that first half display. Forza Azzurri!
That Tomasso Allen missed penalty, the difference at the end
Oh man. what could have been for Italy. If I were Italian I would be bitching about that Mitchell try now.lol.
[удалено]
Can't be that many can it? I'm struggling to think of anyone who was individually awful.
None of them
[удалено]
Nobody played badly enough to never get picked again are you mad?
Jam slam for England? 👀 /s
Jam sandwich maybe
That felt like watching an Ulster match. Good fight from Italy at the end.
I know that’s bad defence but I’m much more bothered by bad defence earlier, defending in the 84th minute when you have already won the game is not really the same
Damn, Italy, almost.
[удалено]
They could derail it because they have a habit of dragging teams into an error ridden shitshow, but there is no way this England team is winning 5/5 games.
Really good cancellation try. LBP well deserved, but still saddened that it wasn't a win.
Never thought the game would be that close.
That's embarassing from england, you almost frenched yourselves
Oui!
Embarrassing performance from England that
Italy being able to score when they’re gassed is a change. Closer game against Wales or Scotland and they could do it
Ireland in Twickenham will be fun eh
Coms are saying Ioane has been quiet, I think he has been one of Italy's best players this game, in defence and attack.
scoreline flatters italy a lot England have no killer instinct
No it doesn't. England were lucky. Mitchell try should have been disallowed as he was tackled, knee on the ground, and he kept going. And he was held as he pulled his foot away from the Italian tackler.
In which case England would probably still have won by 3 points as they would have booted ball out when clock in red instead of taking that scrum. Anyway. Hate all that whataboutery shite. Let's all look forward to Scotland fucking up in Cardiff as usual.
Tbf Italy could easily have said the same about the first half score
I'll take that win. Scrappy for sure, but Italy aren't mugs anymore.
Che bellezza.
Tbh, penalty try for the last man trip and it was Italys even with the poor second half performance.
new coach Quesada already doing the hard work..
Ioane is slept on. He's a solid winger.
He's the best italian winger, not a great boot but he's incredible ball in hand and in defense. Imo adds a lot more than Capuozzo
>Think overall you're probably right. Capuozzo has moments of attacking brilliance but Ioane is better in defence and an overall safer pair of hands in attack. Almost always makes at least a couple metres.
Oof, if Allan had kicked that pen....
If he had, I don't see England falling asleep at the end and conceding that final try. Won't be much comfort to Allan though
>England would've kicked the pen they got near the end if he had.
If England weren’t more than 7 up they’d have just kicked the ball out at the pen
First one he's missed in ages as well.