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Youthful Italy side boasts promise in RWC warm-up
By Alex Shaw
Italy are set to kick-off their Rugby World Cup preparations in Dublin on Saturday, with the Azzurri taking on Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
Conor O'Shea has named his squad for the test and has opted to include a number of younger players in the starting XV, with the game clearly seen as an opportunity for those newer faces to impress against an Irish side that has a number of regular starters involved.
Italy's remaining warm-up games will see them host Russia the following week, before finishing up with trips to Paris and Newcastle to take on France and England respectively.
The experience of Carlo Canna, Tommaso Benvenuti and Guglielmo Palazzani has been retained in the back line, alongside established options such as Angelo Esposito and Edoardo Padovani. The inclusion of 21-year-old Benetton centre Marco Zanon, however, offers Italian fans a new look midfield partnership with Benvenuti.
Zanon, who had a strong Guinness PRO14 campaign last season, is set to win just his second cap for Italy, with the first coming against France earlier this year in the Guinness Six Nations. A powerful and incisive ball-carrier, O'Shea will be hoping that Zanon can expose Ireland's midfield pairing of Chris Farrell and Garry Ringrose.
There is a similar theme up front in the forwards, with tighthead prop Marco Riccioni in line to make his debut in the starting XV, as Benetton continue to pump out impressive young Italian players ready for international rugby. He will be joined in the pack by Giovanni Licata, with the Zebre back rower continuing to make a reputation for himself after impressing at age-grade levels previously.
Experience in the pack comes in the forms of second rows Dean Budd and Alessandro Zanni, whilst props Simone Ferrari and Andrea Lovotti wait in the wings on the bench.
Riccioni's opposite number in Dublin will be British and Irish Lion Jack McGrath, whilst Licata will need to bring success on the gain-line as both a carrier and a tackler to help mitigate the likes of Rhys Ruddock and Jordi Murphy in the Irish back row.
The trio of Zanon, Riccioni and Licata all played together for the Italian U20 side in 2017, with their impressive transition to the senior club and international game over the last year an indication of the positive work that O'Shea has been doing with the Azzurri. Riccioni captained that U20 side and all three have made sizeable strides in their development over the past two years.
Expectations around Italy at the Rugby World Cup will be realistic and few are expecting them to escape from a pool that boasts both New Zealand and South Africa, but if this impressive young triad can force their way into O'Shea's 31-man squad and pick up valuable experience in Japan, then Italy could be on a path to being more of a force in the next cycle.
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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.
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