Jeff Probyn: Italy needs time to reach its full potential 

Jeff PCan you believe it? After Italy scored three really good tries against the England team and Wales scored just the one, there have been questions as to the value of Italy’s inclusion in the Six Nations.
I wouldn’t mind but this doubt has been based on history and the fact Italy have lost the first two games of this Championship, two games against the only two unbeaten teams remaining in the competition.
There are still three games to be played so it is a bit early and unfair to be condemning them to another wooden spoon – it’s likely given that their two home games are against France and Wales, but even so, they have beaten both before.
Ireland beat Italy in Rome only managing to score two tries and both tries were while Italy were reduced to 14 players. It was, however, an evenly matched game until the yellow card intervened.
As for the England game, England’s six tries would have been four (just one more than the Italians) had it not been for some interesting refereeing and a totally wrong call from the TMO.
The interesting refereeing came from John Lacey when he allowed Ben Youngs to take a quick tap despite the fact that half the England pack were in front of him creating an obstruction for the Italian forwards.
Full marks to Youngs for his quick thinking but a quick tap is allowed only if all your team are in an onside position. If not the referee usually calls the play back and makes the player take the penalty again.
As for the wrong TMO call, I think everybody in the stadium including the England players were surprised when Australian TMO George Ayoub awarded Billy Vunipola a try when it was obvious to all that Italian scrum-half Gori had the ball on his body and was in touch in goal having been driven through the corner flag.
Gori held on to Vunipola and was carried to the try-line, dumped to the floor with the ball resting on his chest and half his body in touch in goal before the ball was eventually grounded.
In fact, if you look at the video you can clearly see the ball on Gori’s chest while his back is on the ground in touch in goal before the weight and momentum of  Vunipola rolls the ball off him. Even then it is impossible to confirm who is in control as the ball is grounded, which begs the question why did the TMO award the try?
I can only assume that he was so focused on the grounding of the ball and gave the benefit of doubt to the attacking player that he totally missed the fact that the players, and hence the ball, were in touch.
If any part of a player in contact with the ball so much as touches the touch line, the ball is deemed to be out of play, leaving the TMO to decide only whether it was a 22 metre drop-out or a five-metre scrum.
Although I am sure that England would still have won the game, that try came at a vital juncture with Italy still holding a narrow lead and defending well, which makes the TMO’s error unforgivable.
For those who say that doesn’t matter as we would have won anyway, I’d say true, but can you imagine the outcry if those decisions had been made against England? For a team in Italy’s position those decisions are soul destroying as they try to bridge the gap between themselves and the established nations.
Unless World Rugby are prepared to change both the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship to a virtual league system that allows for promotion and relegation, thereby potentially risking the prospect of one of the established nations (probably Scotland given their small player base) being relegated, countries like Italy and Argentina must be given time to raise their game.
The vast majority of countries playing rugby remain amateur, thus making any such promotion/rel-egation arrangement virtually impossible.
If it happened it could involve our professional players facing amateurs in different countries every few years; the logistics, let alone the insurance, would be horrendous.
The changes that have happened in terms of conditioning and player management in the professional game may even threaten the existence of RWC as we now know it.
The divide between the physicality of the professional and amateur player is becoming wider and the potential for serious injuries is slowly increasing.
Games in this year’s RWC like New Zealand vs Namibia may seem like a bit of fun trying to guess how many points the All Blacks will run in – but the risks of injury to both sets of players is no laughing matter.
When top players play against each other there are a set of unwritten rules that the players unwittingly follow. These include an understanding of where and when on the pitch you are likely to be hit and how to protect yourself.
When you play games against players from a much lower level there are always players in the ‘wrong place’ and you can either run into them or be tackled from the ‘wrong’ angle thereby resulting in injury.
The dangers for amateur players not used to the physicality of play at the top of the game don’t need to be explained – but there are many.
Despite Italy’s steady improvement, the gap between them and the best sides in the Six nations is massive, so bad decisions and questions of inclusion are damaging and erode the confidence, but it can be far more damaging for the Six Nations itself.
This year’s competition could come down to a points difference and the extra 14 points gifted to England in that game could decide who wins and who comes second.