AT TEST LEVEL, it’s rare you see a game where one scrum has complete and utter dominance over the other.

There are plenty of games where one pack has the upper hand, or where they have their opponents scrambling for their clean ball, but complete out-and-out dominance is a rarity.

Scotland’s 36-20 win against Italy in round three was one of those games. Of the day’s 16 scrums, Italy conceded seven penalties, and it arguably could have been more.

Most of the trouble was caused in the battle between Scotland’s Alasdair Dickinson — the best loosehead so far in the tournament — and Italian tighthead Lorenzo Cittadini, who had one of days every prop dreads. No matter what he tried, he ended up going backwards.

It leaves Italian coach Jacques Brunel with a selection dilemma. Cittadini’s performance was so poor last time out that you would almost certainly expect him to be dropped, but because of Martin Castrogiovanni’s suspension, Cittadini may get a stay of execution, with Dario Chistolini supporting from the bench.

If Cittadini does get the nod to continue at three, the opportunity is there for Jack McGrath to seriously disrupt him. When the pair met in Leinster’s heavy defeat to Wasps in the Champions Cup in January, McGrath didn’t take a backwards step at the scrum, and will be confident for more of the same on Saturday.

Cittadini’s problems were clear from the very first scrum, and while the penalties didn’t start flowing until later in the game, we could see how his poor positioning was making the scrum unstable.

Below, we can see how he and Dickinson line up opposite each other. Note Dickinson’s body shape, which is perfect. There’s a right angle at his hips, and around 120 degrees at the knees, giving him maximum stability and maneuverability.

Compare that to Cittadini. His feet are way too far back from his body, with the angle at his hips far too obtuse.

You can get away with this if all you’re hoping to do is lock out in desperation, but with feet that far back from your body, any attempt to drive forward will likely lead to a collapse.

Inevitably, that’s what happens. We can see how his knee is on the ground, with the rest of his body locked out. With the ball present at the back of the scrum, Jaco Peyper tells Scotland to play on.

The next scrum is almost identical. Again, we can see how Cittadini’s legs are too far back from his body.

And once again, as soon as Cittadini tries to counter Dickinson’s drive, his knee – and this time his bind – hits the ground.

In a moment of foolhardiness, Cittadini tries to get up off the ground and attack Dickinson once again, but that only makes things worse.

Keeping his back perfectly straight and square, Dickinson powers through Cittadini, before Italy scramble away possession.

Scotland’s dominance finally yielded something on the next set down, and it followed an identical pattern to the first two scrums.

Again, Cittadini has his feet way too far back from his body.

Again, his knee immediately hits the ground as Dickinson puts on the pressure…

And when he gets back to his feet, we can see just how desperate he has become, locking his body out in a straight line, being marched backwards. The scrum eventually collapsed on the far side, with Andrea Lovotti the man penalised, but after just four minutes, Cittadini’s poor technique has seen him marched backwards three times in a row.

There was a brief respite for Italy on the next scrum, with Dickinson penalised for pulling Cittadini down, but it looked to be a harsh call.

The Italian clearly drops to his hands and knees, but the touchjudge informs Peyper that Dickinson had pulled the Italian down.

When we look closely at the binds of both Dickinson and Cittadini, it’s a “six of one, half a dozen of the other” situation.

Dickinson’s bind is relatively short, but Cittadini equally, is pulling the scrum down.

Like plenty of decisions in the pro game, the team with the put-in will get the 50/50 call. You can bet your life that had it been a Scottish put-in, they’d have been awarded the penalty.

For the next few scrums, Italy looked a little more stable, and much of it was down to Cittadini correcting his footwork, bringing his feet a little bit closer to his body.

However, eventually he went back to his old ways.

Just after the half-hour mark Dickinson exerts his dominance once again in the most destructive scrum of the day.

While his back was perfectly straight as the sides came together, Cittadini’s positioning of his legs is brutal.

There is practically no bend in his legs whatsoever, giving him next to no power, stability or resistance.

Getting your initial body shape correct is absolutely vital, because if you don’t you’ll spend the rest of the scrum on the back foot.

Because he has no maneuverability in his body position, as soon as Dickinson starts to push, Cittadini can’t correct his stance for fear of collapsing.

Instead, his feet remain where they were, while his body moves backwards, to the point where his back begins to curve, and when that happens, a prop is in huge trouble.

Because of the pressure coming from the Italian second row, the more Dickinson drives, the more bunched Cittadini’s body becomes, to the point that he the starts to lift off the ground.

While deliberately lifting an opponent in the scrum is probably the most dangerous thing you can do, I’d be inclined to give Dickinson the benefit of the doubt. There’s a light incline in the direction he’s driving, but it’s mostly down to the fact that Cittadini is beginning to stand up, and his second row is pushing up.

Eventually, it reaches a point where both of Cittadini’s feet are now off the ground.

It’s an incredibly dangerous situation to put yourself in. With Cittadini still inside the scrum, it means that he’s being lifted up off the ground by his head, putting an enormous amount of pressure on his neck, and cutting off his breathing.

To get an idea of the discomfort involved, put both of your hands onto the back of your head, and push your head into your chest. You can immediately feel the pressure on the back of your neck, and you are no longer able to breathe. When this happens in a scrum, it’s even worse. Poor technique doesn’t just cost you a penalty. It can result in serious, serious injury.

Soon after, Cittadini conceded another penalty after getting dismantled by Dickinson, and just after half time, he conceded another.

We can’t see his side of the scrum, but we can see how Italy’s loosehead Andrea Lovotti — a new addition to the squad for the Six Nations — got completely taken apart by WP Nel.

The Italian lined up straight and square to Nel, as we can see below, but sometimes, that isn’t enough.

The Scottish eight begin to power through, and as often happens props, Lovotti is too proud to go backwards, instead turning inside and standing up as Nel moves forward, to the point where he’s now perpendicular to the scrum.

Cittadini was the man penalised again though, and he somehow made it to the 57 mark before being substituted.

However, things didn’t get much better when the replacements arrived, conceding two penalties in the three scrums he took part in.

After such a pasting, Castrogiovanni may have got the nod to start over him this Saturday but for his suspension, and with the third in command Chistolini not featuring so far in the tournament, it would be a big call to put him in the first 15 at the weekend.

While Italy’s scrum has struggled in their first three games, it’s unlikely that Ireland will walk through them like the Scots did.

In the last year we’ve seen how Ireland are very restrained when they come up against a much inferior scrum. Against Canada, Georgia and also Italy at the World Cup, they used their control at the set piece as a platform for their backs to attack when they were outside the 22, waiting until they were close to their opponents’ line to exert their dominance.

After a hard, close battle at the scrum against England last time out, expect Ireland to look a little more comfortable this weekend.

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