The Scrum
the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GG 11
CAN THE YOUTH CHANNEL
THEIR TALENT?
It is exciting to see such a young,
fearless and talented England team,
and Simon Middleton will be looking
to see how they function without
Katy Daley-McLean, Sarah Hunter,
Sarah Bern and Natasha Hunt.
They have the skills, it is just a case
of whether they can go away from
home and cope with the pressure
against France.
They did not want to be trying
these players in the Six Nations or in
the months leading up to the World
Cup so now is the opportunity to test
England and France can show off best of women’s rugby
them physically, mentally and
emotionally. It is a brave team
selection, but the coaches want to see
where their strength and depth is and
clearly feel confident enough that this
side can beat France.YOUNG FLY HALF
Helena Rowland has
played really well for
Loughborough Lightning
in the Premier 15s and
she starts at No 10 today.
She is only 21 but has
earned the opportunity
with her performances. She
is more of a running ten so we
may see her run a little bit more as
opposed to being the playmaker.
You want to play in the right areas
against France because they are a
lethal team, and Helena is a very
good footballer and can marshal the
game well. Zoe Harrison, who is a tenby trade, is at 12 so England have a
midfield of world-class kickers.
I expect a similar approach in
terms of a territory game and putting
pressure on in the right areas, but
the distribution skills of Helena and
Zoe should add fluidity to allow
Emily Scarratt, Abby Dow
and the other outside
backs to flourish all
over the park.FIRE WITH FIRE IN
THE FORWARDS
The set piece is important
when England face France,
who historically have an edge
in the scrum but overall it is nip
and tuck. England’s front row are
extremely powerful, fast and
dominant, and the back row is
ridiculous, so it will be meeting fire
with fire. Alex Matthews is back from
sevens and Marlie Packer and SarahBeckett complete a very dynamic
back row.
The exciting thing about France is
that for the first time in a long time
they can pick whoever they want
because their sevens players are
available. Chloé Pelle plays front row
in 15s — that adds a different
dynamic by having a forward who
can burst around a centre.
The French bring the heat in
defence. They are notorious for
double hitting, flying out the line,
cutting off passes and stopping the
ball dead. If England try to play too
much they could get into trouble, but
if they stop the French momentum
early and harness all their talent and
fearlessness, they can punish them.FREE-TO-AIR TV
So many people have an opinion of
women’s rugby having never watched
it, but having the games on BBC Twois a great opportunity to see two of
the best teams in the world go head
to head over two weekends.
When we played against France
at the 2017 World Cup, 3.2 million
people in France alone tuned into
watch and this is a great opportunity
to elevate women’s rugby and
challenge the view that it is no good.
If your opinion is the same after
watching it, fine, but here is a real
opportunity to see some of the best
athletes and best rugby players in the
world go up against each other.Rachael
Burford
England centre
England Kildunne; Breach, Scarratt (c), Harrison,
Dow; Rowland, Riley; Cornborough, Cokayne,
Brown, Ward, Cleall, Matthews, Packer, Beckett.
Replacements Davies, Harper, Keates, Talling,
Millar-Mills, MacDonald, Smith, Jones.
France Izar; Bertrand, Filopon, Neisen, Menager;
Drouin, Sansus; Deshaye, Sochat, Bernadou,
Ferer, Diallo, Mayans, Hermet (c), Gros.
Replacements Touye, Ait Lahbib, Pelle, Feleu,
Lecat, Bourdon, Vernier, Pignot.France
v England
Today, 1.15pm
Grenoble
Live on BBC 2HOW THEY LINE UP
ITALY
M Minozzi
Wasps
J Trulla
Calvisano
M Zanon
Benetton
C Canna
Zebre
M Bellini
Zebre
P Garbisi
Benetton
M Violi
Zebre
D Fischetti
Zebre
L Bigi
Zebre
G Zilocchi
Zebre
M Lazzaroni
Benetton
N Cannone
Benetton
S Negri
Benetton
B Steyn
Benetton
J Polledri
GloucesterSCOTLAND
S Hogg
Exeter Chiefs
D Graham
Edinburgh
C Harris
Gloucester
S Johnson
Glasgow
D van der Merwe
Edinburgh
D Weir
Worcester
A Price
Glasgow
R Sutherland
Edinburgh
S McInally
Edinburgh
Z Fagerson
Glasgow
S Cummings
Glasgow
J Gray
Exeter Chiefs
J Ritchie
Edinburgh
H Watson
Edinburgh
B Thomson
Scarlets1514131211109 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8REPLACEMENTS
L Ghiraldini
unattached
S Ferrari
Benetton
P Ceccarelli
Brive
J Meyer
Zebre
M Mbanda
Zebre
S Varney
Gloucester
T Allan
Benetton
F Mori
CalvisanoREPLACEMENTS
G Turner
Glasgow
O Kebble
Glasgow
W P Nel
Edinburgh
S Skinner
Exeter Chiefs
N Haining
Edinburgh
S Hidalgo-Clyne
Exeter Chiefs
J Lang
Harlequins
B Kinghorn
EdinburghKick-off 12.45pm
Referee L Pearce (Eng)
Assistants C Ridley, K Dickson (Eng)
TMO W Barnes (Eng)high. But he also understands that he
needs to drive us around the field.”
Can four in a row become five? “A
few of the boys would be aware of
that but our message this week is very
much to concentrate on ourselves and
do everything we can to make sure
we get the win,” Hogg said. “We’ve
had a good week of preparation and
feel in a good place, but it means
absolutely nothing unless we turn up.
“We’re confident, we’re happy with
each other, we have enjoyed each
other’s company over the past few
weeks and hopefully that comes out
in our performance.”of Scotland. Hogg has said the same
with regard to how his game has
developed at Exeter Chiefs. Their
comments ought to sound alarm bells
for Scottish rugby authorities. If
players become so much better after
leaving, what is it about the Scottish
culture that constrained them?
“He’s gone well for Worcester over
the last couple of years and he’s been
a breath of fresh air around the
camp,” Hogg said of Weir. “He’s a lot
more relaxed nowadays than he was a
few years ago. He comes in with great
energy, wanting to learn and improve
on a daily basis and to keep the spiritsoperates most effectively when there
is mutual trust between the two.
The most significant change for
Scotland today is that Duncan Weir
has come back into the side after
Russell and Adam Hastings were both
ruled out by injuries against Wales.
The lazy caricature of the Worcester
Warriors fly half is that he likes to lie
deep and kick the leather off the ball
but it is a hopelessly simplistic view of
a player who has been one of the best
attacking playmakers in England for
the past couple of seasons.
This week Weir spoke of enjoying a
sense of freedom since he moved outConfident Scots
should have no
trouble making
it five in a row
rankings. Georgia, a team that
Scotland swatted aside with ease
three weeks ago, are 12th.
Italy do have some things going for
them. They have gone for youth,
putting faith in homegrown talent
rather than carrying on down that
blind alley of recruiting squadrons of
southern-hemisphere players. In
Matteo Minozzi, the full back, they
have a wonderfully bold attacker,
while Jake Polledri, the No 8, is such a
force that they are learning to cope
with the loss of Sergio Parisse.
Yet Scotland, frankly, are too strong
in too many areas. Too strong,
especially, in the pack. Two weeks ago
the Scottish forwards bullied Wales so
relentlessly in Llanelli that it was only
the constraints imposed by gruesome
weather conditions that saved the
home side from a drubbing.
Italy are not without some decent
forwards. Trouble is, they are pretty
much all in the back row. If Scotland
keep the game tight, milk penalties in
the scrums, pepper the corners with
kicks and muscle their way over the
line then they should have the
makings of a comfortable win.
It is not, perhaps, the classic
Scottish style. But we can live without
that ruinous, rampaging, swirling stuff
so long as it gets the win. In the pack,
not one of the Scottish front five can
be ruled out as a potential Lion, and if
the strength is there then why not use
it? Of course a spot of rampaging
from the flankers, Jamie Ritchie and
Hamish Watson, will not go amiss.
That, perhaps, is the greatest
change in Scotland’s fortunes. For
most of the past decade the team’s
strength has been behind the scrum,
in Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Tommy
Seymour and Sean Maitland. Now
there is a much more balanced look
to the side. A rugby team will always
have that division between piano
players and piano shifters, but itAlasdair
Reid
There ought to be a law against
drawing comparisons between events
in Belgrade on Thursday and what
may unfold in Florence today but in
the absence of any such statute let’s
just indulge ourselves anyway.
For while the Scotland football
team’s feat of beating Serbia to reach
next year’s European Championship
brought a far more substantial reward
than anything their rugby cousins will
gain in the friendlies-with-bells-on
Autumn Nations Cup, there is a
common theme in both of a country
regaining its reputation, and
rediscovering its joy, in sport.
And just as those who came to
football in the Seventies and Eighties
thought it the norm for Scotland to
reach the final stages of major
tournaments, those who came to
rugby a little later believed there was
nothing unusual in the national team
stringing together victories. In those
regards there has been a nostalgic
whiff around both codes of late.
But a shared need for caution as
well. Yes, it was lovely for the football
team to qualify for the big events on a
regular basis, but rather less so to see
them sent home early from every one
of them. And while the rugby team’s
run of four straight wins is the best
since 1996, the shortcomings of their
opponents have to be acknowledged.
Those four victories have given
Scotland new levels of momentum
and confidence. And there is no
reason to believe that either will be
diminished today. Even allowing for
home advantage, Italy (14th) are far
adrift of the Scots (7th) in the world
r
Weir, sporting an impressive hairdo, has returned to the Scotland set-up with
renewed vigour, having won only one cap for his country in the past three yearsGIUSEPPE MAFFIA/SNSItaly v
Scotland
Kick-off 12.45pm, today
TV Amazon Prime
Radio BBC 5 Live