The Improvement and Future of Italy
Much has been said of Italy since they joined the Six Nations twenty-two years ago, most of which has been very negative. Since 2000, they have gone 13-1-101, meaning that they have only 13 wins in twenty-three seasons. Recently, Italy won their final match of the 2022 season against Wales to end a 36-match losing streak. When looking at Italy’s history in the Six Nations, it is very understandable that many have called for their expulsion and even their replacement by other teams, the most prominent choice being Georgia. This is not quite fair to Italy who are, in my opinion, beginning to find their stride.
Italy celebrating their victory over Wales in Cardiff
The largest contender for Italy’s position in the Six Nations would be Georgia, but Georgia would not compete any better than Italy has. The evidence comes from Georgia’s shortcomings over the last few years. Italy, when they first joined, had already beaten several tier one nations, from 1995-1998 they defeated Ireland and Argentina three times each, and bested Scotland and France once a piece. When Italy first arrived on the scene in 2000, they defeated the reigning champions, Scotland, and would generally win about 2 games every 3 years. Georgia has never beaten a tier one nation. Italy got in because they had proven they could compete with the big boys, while Georgia has not.
Let’s look at Italy’s recent run of form. Yes, they did lose 36 straight games between besting Scotland in 2016 and winning at the Principality against Wales thanks to the wonder try by Capuozzo and Padovani—but why did they struggled for so long? Some issues could be attributed to a revolving door of coaches, but it may be more accurate to say that Italy’s golden generation (or a golden generation) ended without anyone to pass the torch to. Between 2015 and 2020, eight of Italy’s eleven most capped players of all time retired from rugby, either all together or from international play. This includes Sergio Parisse (142), Martin Castrogiovanni (119), Alessandro Zanni (118), Marco Bortolami (112), Leonardo Ghiraldini (107), Mauro Bergamasco (106), Andrea Masi (95), and Luke McLean (89). Two others on that list retired in 2012 and 2013, Mirco Bergamasco (89) and Andrea Lo Cicero (103). In total, ten of their eleven most capped players hung up their boots within the last decade. If we look even deeper, Rugby Pass released a best Italy XV in 2020, as voted for by fans. Only one of those players are still playing, Matteo Minozzi, and all but four retired between 2013 and 2020, including Giovanbattista Venditti (44) and Simone Favaro (36) who retired for Italy in 2017, and Michele Campagnaro (46) who last played for Italy in 2019. That is now 13 of Italy’s greatest players retiring in the last decade. Any team would see a serious drop in results, especially a nation that lacks the pathway infrastructure and player pool of the larger nations. Therein lies the key to their future hopes.
Martin Castrogiovanni and Sergio Parisse (Italy’s two most capped players ever) belting out their national anthem
Connor O’shea’s tenure was not concerned with winning in the moment, but he helped Italy lay the groundwork for the new squad that is just now coming through. When he was given the job one of his first acts was to bring in Steve Aboud as their head of technical direction, the man behind the restructuring of Ireland’s academy system that has created so much depth and talent for the Shamrocks. This was in 2016, and since then the results from the age-grade levels of Italy have been phenomenal, in the six years (2009-2015) prior to his appointment the U-20 team went 2-1-32 in the U-20 six nations, a win percentage of 6%. From 2016-2022 they have gone 8-25, a win percentage of 24.2%. And if we look at 2018-2022 since what Aboud did would have needed a couple of years to take effect, they went 8-15, or a win percentage of 35%. This is enormous for Italy, most of the current squad have come through this system during that time and have, as a result, been brought up in a winning culture where they are not just tested regularly by their opponents but by their teammates around them to make them better. Let’s look at the current “best” twenty-three that Italy could field, ignoring any injuries, and when they made their debut:
1. Danilo Fischetti (2020)
2. Gianmarco Lucchesi (2020)
3. Marco Ruccioni (2017)
4. Niccolo Cannone (2020)
5. Frederico Ruzza (2017)
6. Sebastian Negri (2016)
7. Michele Lamarao (C) (2020)
8. Jake Polledri (2018)
9. Stephen Varney (2020)
10. Paolo Garbisi (2020)
11. Monty Ioane (2020)
12. Leonardo Marin (2022)
13. Ignacio Brex (2021)
14. Ange Capuozzo (2022)
15. Edoardo Padovani (2016)
16. Tiziano Pasquali (2017)
17. Ephalahame Faiva (2021)
18. Pietro Ceccarelli (2016)
19. Toa Halafihi (2022)
20. Marco Fuser (2012)
21. Tommaso Allen (2013)
22. Alessandro Fusco (2021)
23. Matteo Minozzi (2017)
Only Tommaso Allen and Marco Fuser debuted prior to the 2016 season. Thirteen of the players made their debuts within the last 2 years. This team is the most well-rounded Italy has had in a while thanks to the recent coaches looking to building for the future rather than finding ways to scrape a few wins here and there.
I should not get too far ahead of myself, this team has only won one Six Nations game. But for the first time in a long time there is genuine hope in this team. In the past the team generally had one or two stars trying to win the game by themselves, see Parisse’s entire international career for reference. Now, they are truly a team, they trust one another and believe not just in themselves but the man beside them. That is huge, because having a culture of trust and cohesion is arguably the most important aspect of a winning rugby team. The trust is there, the cohesion is forming and will come with more game time together as most of the squad is still inexperienced. While they may lack the star power of the other nations with their Duponts, Furlongs, and Itojes, they have several exciting rising stars.
None of these stars currently burn brighter than the 150 pound, soaking wet, Ange Capuozzo. He has only played a total of 105 minutes of international rugby, but he has put on a show. In that game and a half he bagged himself a brace of tries against Scotland, and set up what I consider to be the try of the year against Wales. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone anywhere who did more in there first two games of rugby for their country than him. And he will now be taking his talents to Top 14 giants, Toulouse, where he will no doubt shine alongside other backline stars like Ntamack and Dupont.
Another star that has also caught the eye of many, except Johnny Wilkinson who still doesn’t know who he is, is their omnipresent flyhalf, Paolo Garbisi. Garbisi is very young but has the makings to be one of the top number tens in the entire world, and perhaps the best Italy has ever seen. He pulls the strings for Italy, calling plays constantly and always scanning for opportunities to put his team on the front foot. This was sometimes a problem for Italy, as he would often take total control of the attack, so if he was on the floor the rest of the team was not sure what to do. Now, he trusts his teammates to take control at times, which allows the team to have a much more varied attack.
If Garbisi is Italy’s brain then the ever-passionate captain, Michele Lamaro, is their heart. Lamaro lead the entire Six Nations in tackles this last season and was just a few off from the record. He is the kind of captain that Italy has desperately needed since Parisse retired in 2019, he is a no-nonsense player that leads from the front. He plays smart and plays hard, constantly working on defense. He exudes passion and regularly preaches earning respect through sheer force of will an effort.
Italy’s biggest issue now is establishing some coaching stability. They have had five different coaches since 2011, and Kieran Crowley, the current head coach, has announced he will leave the helm after the World Cup in 2023. This is very unfortunate because Crowley has done a very good job at developing a team identity and improving the team tactics and has only been at the job since 2021. Hopefully, the team has an equally capable coach take the helm and stay with them for at least two World Cup cycles. If they can fix this issue and continue the trajectory the team is on, not only will there not be calls for them to be kicked out of the Six Nations, but they might even be regular title contenders.
