Captain Michele Lamaro says Italy must begin beating the game’s top sides if they want to become genuine contenders in the Six Nations.
Italy have been playing Test rugby since 1929 and joined the Six Nations in 2000. They are considered a tier-one nation and regularly face teams ranked in the world’s top 10, but they have never beaten either England or New Zealand.
They may have their best chance yet to end their England hoodoo when the teams meet for the 33rd time on Saturday.
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Lamaro wants his team to learn from the example set by Argentina in taking the next step in their development.
Argentina joined the Rugby Championship in 2012 and beat the Springboks for the first time in 2015 before defeating the All Blacks for the first time in 2020.
“If you want to get to the point where you believe you can be competitive against the best teams in the world, you have to start winning against those teams at some point,” the loose forward said.
“I’m thinking of Argentina, for example, and the improvement they have made in the last couple of years.
“What really put the mark on that was the away game against the All Blacks where they won for the first time.”
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Argentina have since beaten the All Blacks in four of their last 12 meetings, after managing only one draw in the first 29.
Italy have shown promise in this year’s tournament but, after a narrow 18-15 victory over Scotland, they lost away to Ireland 20-13 and France 33-8.
They are level with England on five points after three matches.
The Azzurri have never finished higher than fourth in the Six Nations – a feat they have achieved only twice – and have never won more than two of their five matches in a single campaign.
With a trip to face Wales – currently on a 14-match losing streak in the competition – on the final weekend, Italy have a realistic chance of ending the campaign with three wins for the first time.
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But they would first have to beat England.
“We want to be competitive throughout the whole tournament – that’s the first objective,” Lamaro added.
“We know we have the confidence to say that if we play our best game we can put England under pressure, and sometimes we can score tries from that.
“But at the same time we know we have to be at 100% in most parts of the game because these teams are pretty ruthless.”
– AFP
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
The post Lamaro: Italy must start beating the best appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Captain Michele Lamaro says Italy must begin beating the game’s top sides if they want to become genuine contenders in the Six Nations.
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