Italy’s Six Nations performance is thanks to a system that it is about to tear up

The biennial trek to the Eternal City has added appeal this year both off and on the pitch. The forecast is set very fair in the beautiful Italian capital and due to the pandemic it will be the first time Irish supporters will travel to Rome next weekend since 2019. As for the rugby, Kieran Crowley’s liberated team looks like the most exciting and entertaining Italian team in Six Nations history.

Ireland have won the last dozen meetings between the countries since Italy’s sole Six Nations win in this head-to-head by 22-15 in 2013, and in the last three meetings in this World Cup cycle by an average scoreline of 51-11. But it will be a surprise if next Saturday’s game will be a rout on that scale.

For starters, a fortnight after last year’s 57-6 win in the Aviva Stadium in round four, Ange Capuozzo was sprang from the bench for his Test debut against Scotland. He scored two tries before then creating the match-winning try by Edoardo Padovani, which Paolo Garbisi converted with the last kick of the game to end their depressing 36-match losing streak in the Six Nations. Capuozzo scored another brace of tries in Italy’s historic first win over Australia last November.

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In their opening game against France, Italy contributed to their own problems with poor exits in affording Les Bleus an early 19-6 lead. Against England at Twickenham, their inability to deal with the power of the English lineout maul had them 19-0 down at half-time.

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Many Italian sides would probably have been well beaten in such scenarios previously, but against France that man Capuozzo lit the blue touchpaper again with that wondrous footwork to stand up Gregory Alldritt and score in the tightest of blindside corridors.

Italy actually came back to lead 24-22 inside the last quarter and went for the jugular with a strike move from inside halfway to reach Capuozzo, then a quick tap 30 metres out before Sebastian Negri attempted to pirouette and tip on Tommaso Allan’s pass to winger Pierre Bruno as they created numbers on the edge. But Bruno knocked on, played the ball on the ground and within two minutes Mathieu Jalibert had scored the decisive try for France.

Even then, had Allan’s 43-metre penalty in the 73rd minute not veered outside the right post at the last, he would have kicked a winning penalty near the end. France got out of jail.

Against England, Capuozzo made the initial break before prop Marco Riccioni scored and even when conceding a fourth maul try and having a second player binned, Italy continued to run from deep. They almost scored a wondrous length-of-the-field try before replacement scrumhalf Alessandro Fusco rewarded their enterprise to briefly make it a two-score game inside the last quarter.

That hoary old chestnut about being relegated from the Six Nations has thankfully quietened now, but the point being, that having lifted that sizeable monkey off their back this Italian team will not die wondering.

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Their much-improved underage results had signposted a revival. From 2008, when the old Under-21 Six Nations became an Under-20 Championship, until their third round 78-12 thrashing by France in 2018, Italy won just three, all against Scotland, drew one (against Ireland in 2013) and lost the other 49. But since then, they have played 22 games in the Under-20 Championship, winning eight and losing 14.

The Italians have won four of their last five against Scotland, three of their last five against Wales and beaten England for the first time. They’ve also come desperately close to a first Under-20 Six Nations win over France, never more so than in round one in Treviso this year when outscoring the French by five tries to three, only to miss five kicks out of six, including a gimme and a conversion to win the game.

They lost 32-25 away to England in Gloucester and have actually accumulated four bonus points. And with their huge pack, scrum and lineout maul, they are expected to give Ireland a searching examination in Treviso this Friday.

Paolo Garbisi and Fusco played in the 2019 Six Nations and in the 2019 Under-20 World Cup, as did Capuozzo. Garbisi was partnered by Stephen Varney in 2020, when current number eight Lorenzo Cannone was also blooded. Cannone, left winger Tommaso Menoncello and Gabrisi’s younger brother Alessandro, a scrumhalf, were in the 2021 team.

Much of this is the product of the work done by Stephen Aboud, in his position as head of technical direction for the development of players and coaches with the FIR, having spent the previous 26 years with the IRFU in a variety of guises, including elite player development and national coach development.

Around 120 of Italy’s most talented under-18 and under-19 players trained at four national centres in Milan, Rome, Treviso and Prato, which then fed their best to a single national academy for the under-20s. Matt Williams has described it as the best academy structure in world rugby.

Alas, in his campaign to become the next president of the FIR, Marzio Innocenti vowed to appease Benetton and Zebre Parma by dismantling Aboud’s structures and relocating the two centres to the two franchises. He was duly elected last year, receiving 56 per cent of the votes on the first ballot with former Italian player Paolo Vaccari garnering 40 per cent and the outgoing Alfredo Gavazzi 3 per cent.

So this Under-20 Six Nations is effectively the last Italian team that is a product of the previous academy structure under Aboud and many in Italian rugby, including Crowley, are worried about what the future now holds.

In losing their 14th game out of 14 in the URC by 57-34 at home to Connacht last Saturday, Zebre Parma had four South Africans and three English players in their matchday 23. The English duo of Chris Cook and Tiff Eden were at halfback with the Italian youngsters Ratko Jelic and Antonio Rizzi on the bench.

As for Benetton, who lost 30-13 away to Cardiff, they had three Argentinians, three South Africans, and one each from Tonga, New Zealand, Fiji and England in their matchday 23, including the 34-year-old South African Dewaldt Duvenage at scrumhalf and Argentinian Tomás Albornoz at outhalf, with the younger Garbisi brother and England’s Jacob Umaga on the bench at halfback.

It all seems plain daft.

gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com