The lopsided nature of Ireland’s 57-6 victory over Italy ensures that the main talking point can only really be the scrum law that forced the visitors to play the majority of the game with 13 men, killing off any hopes of a remotely close contest.
Scrum FarceIt’s worth clarifying exactly what happened. In the seventh minute, starting Italy hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi departed due to injury with his arm in a makeshift sling. Just over 10 minutes later his replacement, Ephalahame Faiva, saw red for a high shot on Dan Sheehan.
The result was the game had to go to uncontested scrums since Italy had no fit specialist hooker. Rugby’s laws state that i …
- February 28, 2022
