Six Nations 2024: Italy v Scotland backdrop for showdown between Toulouse full-backs
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Italys Ange Capuozzo and Scotland's Blair Kinghorn both play full-back for Toulouse
Six Nations: Italy v Scotland |
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Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Date: Saturday, 9 March Kick-off: 14:15 GMT |
Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Scotland Extra & BBC Sounds, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app |
And so to Rome for a clash of nations who have known angst in the shape of a French cockerel in this Six Nations.
Scottish rugby folk went through it with 'trygate' in round two, but in round three the Italians trumped them in the game of what-might-have-been.
A try not given, then given, then not given at Murrayfield? Pah! How about a ball falling off a tee at the death in Lille and an illegal French cavalry charge of an Italian kicker going unpunished straight after? A draw instead of a seismic win. How do you like that for injustice?
Scotland and Italy are packing some amount of regret on their way to what will be a mobbed Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
The visitors should be three from three for the first time in Six Nations history. There should be whispers of a Grand Slam showdown in Dublin in the hills.
Italy ought to have one win on the board - a first-ever championship victory in France and a day to rival the unforgettable drama of the slaying of the Welsh dragon at the Principality in 2022. They don't. C'est la vie.
Still, Rome has the look of something special. Two years ago, the crowd at this fixture was just over 41,000. This weekend it'll be pushing 70,000. An estimated 15,000 of those will be Scottish.
The visitors are favourites, but the Italians are dangerous. Both sides have game-breakers, both have full-backs of the highest class who hail from the same club.
Kinghorn makes Toulouse forget Jaminet loss
Blair Kinghorn scored a hat-trick of tries against Italy a year ago
Could Ange Capuozzo and Blair Kinghorn have a mighty say in what happens on Saturday? It would be a surprise if they didn't.
When Toulouse were looking for a replacement for their departing full-back Melvyn Jaminet at the turn of the year, the list of skills they required in the chosen one was as long as the in-goal area at Stade Ernest Wallon.
The new guy had to be a natural full-back who could play fly-half and cover both wings. He needed to be a dependable goal-kicker, a consistent finisher, a physical specimen, a player with a winning mentality and a strong mind - the type who could handle the pressure that comes with playing for the world's biggest club.
What they were looking for, reported the French media, was a Swiss Army knife player. And they found him in Kinghorn.
Kinghorn has now played seven games for Toulouse and won all seven. Toulouse are favourites to win the Top 14 - and second favourites to win the European Champions Cup - and Kinghorn has become a big part of that in the relative blink of an eye. Nobody talks about Jaminet any more.
After just one game, a French rugby outlet said "this association has everything to become a beautiful love story" and it probably does.
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Moving from Edinburgh to Toulouse has to be one of rugby's great culture shocks. From a club that's never won anything to a club that demands they win everything, Kinghorn has adapted and prospered - and, at the Stade Olimpico on Saturday, he will have the 15 jersey on his back while winning his 52nd cap for Scotland.
Down the other end, in the 15 jersey of the Azzurri, he'll see his Toulouse team-mate Capuozzo, born in Le Pont-de-Claix in Grenoble, raised in the French Alps and made Italian by his Neapolitan grandparents.
Capuozzo is three years younger than Kinghorn, five inches shorter and more than three stone lighter. Physically, they're different creatures, but their capacity to thrill is just the same.
In this fixture two years ago, Capuozzo, as baby-faced as you please, came off the bench for his international debut and scored two tries. For the first, he stepped Stuart Hogg. For the second, he stepped Adam Hastings, Darcy Graham and Kyle Steyn.
He looked about 12 years old, a veritable unknown who, in the weeks before his sensational appearance in the Test match arena, played second-tier league games for Grenoble.
Swashbuckler Capuozzo out to end Italy's Rome drought
We saw two tries from Capuozzo for Italy against Scotland in 2022 and three tries for Kinghorn for Scotland against Italy in 2023. When Scotland face Italy, one or the other tends to come up with something special.
Kinghorn's hat-trick last season was his second against Italy, following on from his Six Nations treble in 2019. His fantastic versatility can be seen in these moments. Speed, footwork, vision, power and anticipation no matter what number he's wearing. A natural athlete.
His first hat-trick was scored when he was going through a spell as an international left wing. His second came when filling in for the injured Finn Russell at fly-half. The Swiss Army knife of Toulouse's dreams.
"To my eyes, he's a complete player," said Capuozzo of Kinghorn in the Times. "Really, really strong in so many areas.
"He's got good hands, he kicks well, he's super fast, big and strong physically. He's quickly become such a major asset for our team."
Both players have a swashbuckler spirit. "I feel I need that freedom to express myself on the pitch," Capuozzo said, but such words are just as likely to come out of the mouth of Kinghorn.
In the way they think about the game, they're as close as their pegs on the wall of the dressing room back in Toulouse.
The Italian scored against France last time out and was almost part of something extraordinary. He's 24, has 18 caps and has scored in seven of those games.
He's claimed Test tries against France (two), Australia (two), Scotland (two), New Zealand and South Africa. He provided the moment of sheer, unadulterated magic in the creation of the try for Edoardo Padovani in that famous endgame in Cardiff.
He'll also remember another endgame of a more recent vintage, when Italy were pounding on Scotland's line in the last throes at Murrayfield last season and looking to all the world like they were going to score the try that would have given them victory.
A spillage, a breakaway started and finished by Kinghorn, and they left town without even a losing bonus point. Kinghorn has inflicted so much pain on Italy he must be up there with that right-hand post in Lille in their pantheon of rugby baddies.
Capuozzo was 13 years old when Italy last won a Test match in Rome. He's got all the tools and all the desire to change that.
He'll also know he's got a familiar foe who has the class to make sure the record carries on a while longer. Nobody can know for sure what's going to happen, but whatever occurs it's a safe bet that one, or both, of the flying full-backs will be right in the middle of it.