Josh Gardner

Truly, a banner day for Italian sport all round.

Don’t make me use this guys:

England’s loss to Italy means that Scotland can now finish no lower than third in this year’s Six Nations.

What an historic achievement for them, their loyal fans must be in dreamland.

Back in the day, the DJ in Dempseys in Cardiff (RIP) once said yes to our request that he played the Italian national anthem in the middle of his Saturday night set on a Six Nations day, and the place WENT OFF.

Similar vibes here tonight.

a cartoon of mario with the words " mario ma-ma mia so irresponsible " below him ALT: a cartoon of mario with the words " mario ma-ma mia so irresponsible " below him

Forzzzzaaaaa

Italy are absolutely blowing this fair play

Genuinely think England might have kicked the ball out of hand more in the first 7 minutes than they did in the entire game last week.

Mad that it took two humiliating defeats and changing the whole team to make them realise they needed to revert to type.

Horrible feeling France getting a bonus point and shaving the points difference down to -10 could be important next week.

Forget getting fired in the car park, Galthie is going to get exiled to St Helena after this.

All it took for Scotland to finally win the Six Nations was losing to Italy to take any hint of expectation and pressure off - funny old game.

Can’t imagine how smug you’d be if you were the guy who predicted a Scotland win because France would be way too casual and Scotland would be up for it

Shaun Edwards is gonna go full Ronan O’Gara at Angus Gardner at half time. Better station an intimidating Scottish back row at the door of the ref’s changing room just to be safe

Eddie James’ brain genuinely cannot process the beauty and majesty of what he’s witnessing.

It bears reminding that Carré is listed at 139kg on the Saracens website, which is 306lbs or nearly 22 stone in old money.

You cannot explain using logic, reason, stats - or indeed body fat percentage - how someone that big can shift like that. You just can’t. It’s pure magic.

And has played a significant chunk of his rugby at full-back for the Scarlets. I’m not saying he’s gonna be Leigh Halfpenny but he may know where to stand and how to catch.

The Spanish language ESPN call of Carré’s try is, predictably, absolutely top notch.

I’m going to keep saying “Tom Rogers” in the hope that it makes someone in the coaching team remember he’s a) in the squad b) fit and c) scored a hat-trick against the All Blacks in November

Real culture. Real heritage.

Asides from not being Blair Murray I’m not sure what he’s really offering tbh

Within 30 seconds of Louie Hennessy coming on for his debut tonight he was having to scream at Louis Rees-Zammitt because he was standing in the wrong place and not switched on defensively, by the way…

Jamison Gibson-Park dropping the “Cardiff Blues” in his post-match.

The plastic Cardiff Rugby rebrand can never erase true history in the eyes of the wider rugby world.

It’s just so nice seeing Dewi Lake not looking like a man who hasn’t just been through some sort of SAS enhanced interrogation training after a game.

Josh Adams is the oldest 30-year-old winger I’ve ever seen.

Big Jimothy

He took one look at Carré and realised he was yesterday’s sexy athletic prop

Wales look absolutely knackered, have made 10000 tackles, and I assume the Irish bench is going to take this game away from them in the next 25 minutes…

But being in a game like this at 55 minutes against a team they match up badly against physically is huge progress from two or three weeks ago.

Of all the things to inflict on us mid game, an advert for Adobe Acrobat feels the most cruel

Gatland did say this week that Wales produced the best athletes of the home nations in his experience… maybe this is what he was talking about? 😬

RHYS MICHAEL TIMOTHY CARRÉ

Maybe Jiff will learn how to pronounce his name right now.