1
Italy call up ex-England U20 captain to squad for Ireland test
By Online Editors
Italy head coach Conor O'Shea has announced his 33-man squad to prepare for their Guinness Six Nations match with Ireland.
The squad will gather in Rome on Sunday 17th until Monday 25th February 25 at the Olympic Training Center "Giulio Onesti", in preparation for the game against defending champions Ireland.
Zebre centre Julius Bisegni, who featured in November, returns to the squad after a calf injury. Benetton scurm half who was injured in the lead-up to the Scotland game returns. Also vying for the number nine shirt is the experienced Edoardo Gori, William Palazzani, along with the uncapped Gloucester scrum half Callum Braley.
24-year-old Braley is rated as the Gallagher Premiership's 19th best scrum half in the RugbyPass Index, with an overall RPI of 63, but with figures of 82 for Territorial Kick Metres and 83 for Pass Complete.
Braley represented England at Under 20 level and captained the side during two victorious World Rugby U20 Championships.
He qualifies to play for Italy through his grandfather.
Continue reading below...
You may also like: Exceptional Stories: Ian McKinley
This list of 33 athletes who will meet Sunday in Rome:
Props:
Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 19caps)
Andrea Lovotti (ZEBRE Club, 31caps) *
Titian EASTER (Benetton Rugby, 15caps)
Nicola QUAGLIO (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps) *
Cherif TRAORE '(Benetton Rugby, 7 caps) *
Hookers:
Luca BIGI (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
Leonardo GHIRALDINI (Stade Toulousian, 101 caps)
Second Row:
Dean BUDD (Benetton Rugby, 18 caps)
Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps) *
David SISI (ZEBRE Club, 2 ch)
Alessandro ZANNI (Benetton Rugby, 109 caps)
Back Row:
Marco BARBINI (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)
Maxime Mbanda '(ZEBRE Club, 15 caps) *
Sebastian NEGRI (Benetton Rugby, 14 caps)
Sergio PARISSE (Stade Francais, 136 caps) - Captain
Abraham Jurgens Steyn (Benetton Rugby, 27 caps)
Jimmy TUIVAITI (ZEBRE Club, 2 caps)
Scrum Half:
Callum BRALEY (Gloucester Rugby, newcomer) - invited
Edoardo Gori (Benetton Rugby, 69 caps) *
William PALAZZANI (ZEBRE Club, 30 caps)
Tito TEBALDI (Benetton Rugby, 29 caps)
Flyhalf:
Thomas ALLAN (Benetton Rugby, 45 caps)
Charles REED (ZEBRE Club, 32 caps)
Ian MCKINLEY (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)
Centre:
Michele CAMPAGNARO (Wasps, 40 caps) *
Thomas CASTLE (ZEBRE Club, 16 caps)
Luca MORISI (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps) *
Marco Zanon (Benetton Rugby, rookie) *
Back Three:
Giulio BISEGNI (ZEBRE Club, 11 caps)
Angelo ESPOSITO (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
Jayden HAYWARD (Benetton Rugby, 14 caps)
Edoardo Padovani (ZEBRE Club, 17 caps) *
Luca SPERANDIO (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps) *
*He is/was a member of the National Academy "Ivan Francescato"
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments