{"id":107775,"date":"2026-02-10T10:17:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/italy-surprises-scotland-in-the-six-nations-townsend-on-the-hot-seat\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:17:49","slug":"italy-surprises-scotland-in-the-six-nations-townsend-on-the-hot-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/rugby\/italy-surprises-scotland-in-the-six-nations-townsend-on-the-hot-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy surprises Scotland in the Six Nations: Townsend on the hot seat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scotland Suffers Defeat Against Italy in Six Nations Opener<\/h2>\n\n\nScotland’s coach, Gregor Townsend, faces increasing pressure after his team’s disastrous defeat against Italy in the start of the Six Nations Tournament. The match, played in a rainy Stadio Olimpico in Rome, ended with a score of 18-15 in favor of the Italians.\n\nItaly, with an aggressive game, took a 12-point lead in the first 14 minutes. Despite expectations, the Scottish attack, which featured important players like Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, and Duhan van der Merwe (who were substitutes), failed to respond effectively. In addition, their set-piece play presented constant problems.\n\nThis defeat marks the first time since 2020 that Townsend’s team has lost its opening Six Nations match. The situation is even more critical for the coach, as his position was already being questioned after an autumn campaign with unfavorable results and his recent decision to take on a part-time consultancy role with Red Bull.\n\nThe next challenge for Townsend and his team will be a match against England at Murrayfield.\n\n\n
\"Italia<\/figure>\n\n\nItaly overcame Scotland in difficult conditions in Rome.<\/em>\n\nThe Scottish selection had no excuse to underestimate the Italians, given that nine of their starting players had also participated in the 31-29 defeat on their previous visit to Rome in March 2024.\n\nItaly, despite the absences of Sebastian Negri and Ange Capuozzo due to injury, surprised Scotland in the eighth minute. A pass from Juan Ignacio Brex allowed Louis Lynagh to advance towards the try line. Paolo Garbisi attempted the conversion, but the ball bounced off the post.\n\nIn the 14th minute, Italy scored again when Lynagh outjumped Jamie Dobie and Michele Lamaro passed the ball to Tommaso Menoncello, who managed to score. Garbisi added the extra points.\n\nIn the midst of the heavy rain, Scotland struggled to respond. They managed to apply pressure in the 22nd minute, which led to Jack Dempsey scoring in the 24th minute, with Finn Russell adding the extra points.\n\nItaly regained their lead in the 35th minute with a penalty from Garbisi. Scotland, losing by eight points at halftime, reduced the gap with a penalty from Russell in the 46th minute.\n\nHowever, Italy quickly responded with another Garbisi penalty after Ewan Ashman was penalized for a high tackle. Ashman was replaced by George Turner, and Graham came on in place of Dobie.\n\nDespite entering the field, Turner received a yellow card for a dangerous action against Manuel Zuliani. Although Italy had a numerical advantage, they failed to take advantage of it.\n\n\n

When the match seemed to be slipping away, Scotland got closer in the 67th minute when George Horne scored. Russell missed the conversion.<\/p>\n\n\nThis result summarized the disappointing Scottish performance, which barely threatened to get the necessary points in the final minutes, compromising their chances in the tournament.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scotland Suffers Defeat Against Italy in Six Nations Opener Scotland’s coach, Gregor Townsend, faces increasing pressure after his team’s disastrous defeat against Italy in the start of the Six Nations Tournament. The match, played in a rainy Stadio Olimpico in Rome, ended with a score of 18-15 in favor of the Italians. Italy, with an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[512,940,510,8086],"class_list":{"0":"post-107775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-italy","9":"tag-scotland","10":"tag-six-nations","11":"tag-townsend"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}