this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
14 points (100.0% liked)

Rugby Union

463 readers
9 users here now

Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby. This instance is for news, analysis and discussion of the sport of rugby.

Rules:

No Advertising or Self Promotion

No NSFW or Disruptive Content

No Disrespect or Drama

No Spamming or Off-Topic Content

Be Respectful

Sister Community:
[email protected]

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Black on Blue tonight, with a fairly forgone conclusion, but will Italy put up a fight or give a HT scare? Find out later!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's it, isn't it, doing this against a team giving up a ton makes it look easy. Ireland (or SA I hope!) the big test in a fortnight

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

His little grin while settling before the kick looks a little movie psycho henchman to me. Plays well though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh I agree with that for sure; but I don't think this result is just Italy not being good. ABs have done the work, they won the collision, won the break down, won the set piece, maintained their discipline, and played with accuracy & variety. They kept Italy out of the game and dictated the way it was played.

IRE or SA will be a completely different game, and they will be able to wrest control of the game if they lose it in the way that Italy were not. Although if the ABs keep improving from this they are looking like the team that hurt SA in NZ earlier this year. The difference between this ABs team and other eras is there's a question mark on if they can do it.

If they can, then whoever faces them in the quarters will need to win like its a final, and what that might do with 2 games remaining afterwards is food for thought.