Italy: What’s next?
We’ve come to the end of another explosive tournament. Despite Ireland missing out on a grand slam, they huffed and puffed their way to a successive crown in a pulsating win over Scotland in frontof their home crowd on St Patrick’s weekend.
England and France toughed it out for second, which Les Blues ultimately came out on top, and Wales had to settle for a first wooden spoon since 2003 following a loss to a gallant Italy side who recorded a fourth-ever win over the Welsh.
Italy is the meat of this article I’m coming to. For the first time in 11 years, Azzurri won two matches thus avoiding bottom, marking their best campaign since then.
In my previous article, I questioned “where does Italy go from here” following their umpteenth pool stage exit in France last Autumn.
Get Ese Agboaye’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Italy, are perennial bottom-half men, having never finished in the top three of any tournament. Whenever we see Italy doing well, we always question “have they finally silenced their doubters” and “have they turned a corner” only to see them not remember where they left off.
In my previous article about Italy, I was quoted to have said “I can guarantee they’ll be the basement boys yet again” I was proven wrong by this, and thankfully so, with Italy achieving their best campaign since 2013 (worth another mention I believe). Can they now kick on, and prove why their status as an Established Nation is warranted?
This year so far in context, as well as defeating Wales, they proved this by coming extremely close to defeating England — a side they’re yet to taste victory against, holding France to a draw (a fixture they could’ve won), and besting Scotland for the eighth time.
Looking to this Summer, Italy will be facing Tonga, and Japan as part of the Summer Series. Those two nations are tough nuts to crack but I expect Italy to come away with strong results. At the last Rugby World Cup, neither of them reached the quarter-finals, but Japan did just that for the first time in 2019 — I mentioned this in my previous Italy article.
Then in the Autumn, Azzurri come up against the three-time world champions, New Zealand. They were on the wrong side of a devastating defeat at the global showpiece event in October, so revenge will be on the cards.
I believe the jury is still out for them, despite going through their best campaign for 11 years (baring a heavy loss to Ireland). We’ve seen in previous years, Italy has a good result against a big side, then fail to reproduce. Why is that? Before this years campaign, their biggest result was defeating Australia for the first time in Autumn 2022 (they also lost to Georgia that year — a result which sowed doubt into their Tier 1 status), but then were on the receiving end of a heavy defeat to South Africa. The then three-time world champions are a great side, that can’t be disputed, but Italy seemed to have a momentum issue. What needs to change in that department? Fast forward to this year, they seem to have rectified that.
Every time Italy does well, we always say “now can they kick on”, “now can they show why they deserve to be among the best sides”, then fail to deliver. Will the scenario be different this year? Can they solidify their warranted status?
