Rugby Six Nations: the Argentine Quesada made his debut on the Italy bench and was on the verge of making a breakthrough against England

Gonzalo Quesada He was about to make history with his debut as Italy rugby coach. The former Puma suffered a minimal defeat of 27-24 this Saturday England making his tournament debut Six Nations played at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

The Argentine coach, who replaced the New Zealander Kieran Crowley After the last World Cup, he had the support of the crowd at the Olimpico and the Azzurri completed a good first half, with two tries scored by Alessandro Garbisi (12) and Tommy Allan (26), who added another 7 points with the foot, to arrive at halftime with a 17 to 14 lead.

In those first 40 minutes the English suffered a lot, but remained in the game thanks to the 11 points scored by kicker George Ford, as well as Elliot Daly’s try (20).

But everything changed after the break: scrumhalf Alex Mitchell scored the English team’s second try (45) and Ford made the conversion to give the de la Rosa XV the lead (21-17).

Ford, with two more converted penalties (54 and 67), brought the difference to 10 points, sealing the duel, even if the Italians continued to fight and Montana Ioane scored a try already in injury time (80+4) which allowed the locals not only make up the result, but also the defensive bonus point.

Alessandro Garbisi scored the conversion leaving the final score at 27-24 for the English, who thus placed themselves second in the table with 4 points, one behind Ireland, who defeated France in Marseille on Friday (38-17).

Wales, on the verge of a historic comeback against Scotland

In the last match of the first day, Scotland suffered until the last moment to defeat Wales away at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff 26-27.

The Scots came to dominate the score by 0-27, but the Welsh had a remarkable reaction until they were one point from the equalizer, although they failed to beat Gregor Townsend’s pupils, who scored their first win in Cardiff in 22 years.

Scotland lead 0-20 at half-time thanks to two penalties from Finn Russell (m.5 and 22) and two tries from Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe, converted by Russell.

The situation did not change after the passage to the changing rooms and Scotland extended a lead that seemed insurmountable with a new try from van der Merw two minutes after the restart, converted by Russell.

From there, the Welsh, with everything lost and with several changes in the starting lineup, launched an “impossible” comeback. The adventure began with a try, without subsequent conversion, by James Botham in the 45th, and continued with the goal support of Rio Dyer (52) and Aaron Wainwright – best player of the match – (60), this time converted by Ian Lloyd.

And another goal arrived for the Welshman, by Alex Mann and with a conversion by Lloyd that made the fans at the Millennium Stadium believe more.

Warren Gatland’s team tried until the end, but Scotland gritted their teeth and managed to hold on to their first victory of the tournament. The Welsh at least added two points, despite the defeat, through defeat bonuses and converted tries.

Scotland won their Six Nations opener for the fourth consecutive year, while Saturday’s defeat was Wales’ eighth defeat in their last nine matches and their fifth in a row at home since 2000.