Matt Williams was spittin’. “Muppets,” he said of the World Rugby people who introduced the rule that resulted in Italy having just the 13 men on the pitch for the bulk of the game on Sunday when, pre-match, he’d a notion they’d struggle even if they had twice that number.
Dave McIntyre and Alan Quinlan had tried, quite heroically, to explain to those of us who don’t have a PhD in the rules of rugby precisely what had happened in that first half.
The gist was that because hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi had gone off injured and his replacement Epalahame Faiva was then sent off, the scrums would have to be uncontested so Italy had to go down to 13 men, so they sent winger Pierre Bruno for an early bath so they could have a third prop in the scrums even though they’d be uncontest …
- February 28, 2022
