With hard cash on the line there is little room for risk-taking

An Italian colleague was speculating with us last week on the damage to morale for his team after the first two rounds of the Guinness Six Nations. You can’t wear 91 points and keep a happy look on your face, he said. Context is everything however. Italy have been getting tonked for most of their time in this competition where their last win was over Scotland in 2015. When it comes to making up the numbers they can compute pretty much any sum in their heads.