Italy’s 23-18 victory over Grand Slam hopefuls France at Rome’s Olympic Stadium was earned through a combination of grit, conviction – and a few French handling errors that proved costly in the end.
A largely unimpressive France took a 15-13 half-time lead, but earlier errors, including Frederic Michalak’s missed conversion and a fluffed Wesley Fofana-Fulgence Ouedraogo attack, came back to haunt them in the second half.
France also lost out when Maxime Machenaud’s promising run to the tryline was kept in check 10 metres out, and moments later an Italy charge led to the hosts’s second try when prop Martin Castrogiovanni took Luis Orquera’s pass.
The conversion gave Italy a 20-18 lead and minutes later the stadium erupted when Australian-born Kris Burton hit a decisive drop goal through the posts from 25 metres.
FIR chief Alfredo Gavazzi is hoping to use the spin-off from Italy’s second win over France in the past three editions – they beat France 22-21 at Flaminio Stadium in March 2011 – for further promotion of the game in a country where ‘calcio’ (football) is king.
“This is a family sport, and we need to do everything we can to exploit our Six Nations success to help guarantee the future of rugby in Italy,” he said.
But although Scotland may be there for the taking, after a 38-18 defeat to England which could lead to several key absences through injury, Italy coach Jacques Brunel has called for calm.
“Everyone says Scotland are not a great team at the moment but they are a hard team to play against, especially at Murrayfield, and last year they gave a lot of teams problems,” he warned.
This Saturday is a repeat of last season’s wooden spoon decider, which Italy won 13-6 to condemn the Scots to a winless Championship.
Meanwhile, England coach Stuart Lancaster is keeping Ireland guessing by including centres Billy Twelvetrees, Brad Barritt and Manu Tuilagi in his squad for Sunday’s Six Nations clash in Dublin.
Tuilagi is fit after missing England’s opening victory over Scotland with an ankle injury.
In his place Twelvetrees made an assured, try-scoring debut and Barritt performed his customary role as the anchor of England’s midfield defence.
Ireland is likely to field a back division boasting the talent of fly-half Jonathan Sexton and Brian O’Driscoll, outstanding against Wales.
England No 8 Ben Morgan has not yet been ruled out of Sunday’s match but the back-row forward, who sprained his ankle early in the second half against Scotland, was seen wearing a protective boot at the squad’s hotel on Tuesday.
Thierry Dusautoir will captain France on Saturday against Wales in their Six Nations clash.
The 31-year-old Dusautoir – capped 56 times with 33 of those as captain – returns to the captaincy as the man who replaced him as skipper, Pascal Pape, has been ruled out because of a back injury.
Saint-Andre called up Toulon lock Jocelino Suta as Pape’s replacement in the squad. The tournament is far from over, our ambition is still there to show our best,” he said.
Like France, Wales started the Six Nations with a defeat, 30-23 at home to Ireland.