1
Zanni to win 100th cap as inexperienced Italy face England
By Nicholas McGee
Italy have selected seven Six Nations debutants for their opening match at home to England on Sunday, when lock Alessandro Zanni will win his 100th cap.
Head coach Conor O'Shea has opted to field an inexperienced starting XV at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, with nine players having won 10 caps or less.
Fullback Matteo Minozzi, centres Tommaso Boni and Tommaso Castello, forwards Dean Budd, Simone Ferrari and back row pair Sebastian Negri and Renato Giammarioli will all feature in tournament for the first time.
Zanni, meanwhile, last played for Italy in March 2016 against Wales.
Though the side is lacking experience, there will be a familiar face at captain, with Sergio Parisse set to skipper the side for an 83rd Test match.
Italy XV: Matteo Minozzi, Tommaso Benvenuti, Tommaso Boni, Tommaso Castello, Mattia Bellini, Tommaso Allan, Marcello Violi; Andrea Lovotti, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Simone Ferrari, Alessandro Zanni, Dean Budd, Sebastian Negri, Renato Giammarioli, Sergio Parisse (captain).
Substitutes: Luca Bigi, Nicola Quaglio, Tiziano Pasquali, George Biagi, Maxime Mbanda, Edoardo Gori, Carlo Canna, Jayden Hayward.
Jones and Hartley look ahead to Natwest 6 Nations opener with Italy
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