Six Nations openers showed the need for rugby assassins to kill games off | Robert Kitson

As the Sergio Parisse stumble highlighted, modern rugby union is short of trained specialists with the ability to settle close tussles from open playLet’s just imagine, for a moment, that Sergio Parisse had kicked it. That with the final act of Italy’s tight Six Nations match against France his attempted drop-goal had not swerved so drunkenly off target that the posts were barely in the frame. We would all be sitting here celebrating one of sport’s most stunning coups de grâce, a supreme object lesson in how to win a tight game in style. Related: The Joy of Six: drop goals in rugby union…