The seven - year itch

THE LAST time Italy won a game in the Six Nations was 28 February 2015. They beat Scotland 22-19 in Edinburgh – only their second championship success on the road – as a series of punishing late drives saw home debutants Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson sent to the sin-bin and referee George Clancy award a penalty try.

Enrico Bacchin won his first cap that afternoon, at inside-centre. Seven years on, he recalls the whole experience in vivid detail: from being shaken from his reverie by scrum-half Edoardo Gori when he became mesmerised by the phalanx of fans who thronged the team bus on its arrival at the stadium, through to being knocked over by Stuart Hogg almost straight from the kick-off, to insinuating himself into those crucial last-gasp mauls, then tanning a bottle of vodka with prop Alberto de Marchi in a nightclub a few hours later.

Bacchin’s jersey from the