Referee puts mouthy Italy No9 in his place
There is no such thing as a quiet scrum-half, certainly not at Test level, but Italy No9 Stephen Varney went a step too far for referee Matthew Carley’s liking on Sunday against France.
To be fair to the Gloucester No9, his side were within touching distance of a shock victory over the 2022 Grand Slam winners in Rome when he felt a French player was on the wrong side of the ruck. Italy were leading 24-22 at that point with 17 minutes remaining. However, Carley was having none of it.
The referee warned Italy captain Michele Lamaro not to trap players on the wrong side of the ruck, before turning to Varney and bluntly saying “please stop shouting.”
Unfortunately for Varney and co, they were not able to get over the line, as a late Matthieu Jalibert try gave the visitors a 29-24 win.
Take a look:
After coming up against Antoine Dupont last weekend, Varney will be facing the relatively inexperienced duo of Jack van Poortvliet and Alex Mitchell this Sunday at Twickenham against England. That is after Steve Borthwick announced his 29-man England squad that will prepare for the Italy Test, with England’s 122-cap scrum-half Ben Youngs not included.
FULL SQUAD
FORWARDS
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, 6 caps)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 96 caps)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 10 caps)
Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, 3 caps)
Ben Earl (Saracens, 14 caps)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 44 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 73 caps)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 9 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 63 caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 15 caps)
David Ribbans (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 57 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 75 caps)
Jack Walker (Harlequins, uncapped)
Jack Willis (Toulouse, 6 caps)
BACKS
Henry Arundell (London Irish, 3 caps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 102 caps)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish, 1 cap)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby, 8 caps)
Max Malins (Saracens, 15 caps)
Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 14 caps)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 52 caps)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 18 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 18 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 50 caps)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 8 caps)
