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Introspection needed after Italy underwhelm at the Rugby World Cup
By Jeremy Inson
Four years ago, Italy’s women made their mark as the first Italy team, men or women, to reach the knock-out stages of a Rugby World Cup.
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It was what they expected this year, but their tournament ended sooner than hoped, with their ticket home punched after losing their first two matches to France and South Africa.
A late flourish came in their final match, a 64-3 victory over Brazil, but it did little to hide an underwhelming World Cup display that failed to ignite until it was too late.
“It was a very tough journey, but I am very happy because this is a team achievement,” head coach Fabio Roselli after the win. “It was fundamental for us to finish with a win.”
Like Wales, the other Six Nations team that failed to reach the knock-out stages, Italy brought in a new coach at the start of the year, and at least Roselli left with a World Cup win.
Roselli has sought to widen Italy’s style, building on the work carried out by predecessor Giovanni Raineri, who changed roles to head up the Italian Rugby Federation’s (FIR) U18 Academy last December.
Most pertinently, it meant that Roselli only had a few months to put his imprint on the team before the World Cup.
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The Six Nations went as predicted. There were the expected defeats to England and France, a disappointing loss at home to Ireland, and a battling performance that secured a win over Scotland in Edinburgh, before their 44-12 defeat of Wales wrapped up their campaign.
“It’s not easy because we started less than seven months ago, so close to the Six Nations,” he said. “We are starting a new journey now. We have a lot of young players, who are at their first Rugby World Cup. They show great potential.”
The Scotland match showed what Roselli was hoping to achieve, namely getting the ball to their twinkle-toed back three of Alyssa D’Incà, Aura Muzzo, and Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi, as soon as possible.
That seemed to be their plan in their World Cup opener against France, but they went wide too quickly, and too often, when France’s defence was well set. Fly-half Emma Stevanin also struggled to make much territory with her clearing kicks, meaning that when France went on the attack they did so from within Italy’s half.
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There was also a reluctance to take on France’s forwards despite Italy’s pack containing the likes of Francesca Sgorbini, Silvia Turani, Sara Seye, and Sara Tounesi- players with experience of playing club rugby in England and France.
Worse yet, there was little joy from set pieces. Italy won only 73 percent of their scrums and lost three line-outs.
“Without the scrum and line-out we spent most of the time defending, so we used most of our energy in defence and this can be frustrating,” Roselli said post-match. “France have shown they are a strong side with a strong scrum. With no scrum and line-out it’s tough.”
Another theme of their matches was a lack of discipline. The Azzurre conceded 11 penalties against France, nine against South Africa, and 11 against Brazil, despite being on top for most of the match.
Against a fired-up South Africa, it was more a case of switching off at the wrong moments, being weak in first-up tackles, and then being forced to chase the match.
After clawing back to 24-24, a result that would have put them in pole position to progress, they succumbed to the same issues they had against France, and it was South Africa who reached the quarter-finals.
“We tried to play our game, but we weren’t able to do it,” Roselli said. “That’s because South Africa played a really good game, a powerful game. We were not so connected as a team and we missed a couple of opportunities, too many errors.”
At the very least they left on a high, scoring 12 tries in their 64-3 win over Brazil that included hat-tricks from Ostuni Minuzzi and Francesca Granzotto.
Sofia Stefan was also able to celebrate winning her 100th cap, though the significance was lost with South Africa playing party poopers in York. At 33, the scrum-half who will play for Toulon this year, will probably stay around for a few more seasons, not least to help mentor her understudy Alia Bitonci who at 19, is at the other end of her career.
Elisa Giordano is also 33 and having been captain since 2016, a change may be worthwhile. Her fellow back-rower Sgorbini, at 24, is the leading candidate, with the right mix of ability, experience, and age.
The ASM Romagnat player is one of large group of players in their early to mid-20s that Roselli will aim to build around in the Six Nations and WXV.
The FIR would also do well to find a competition to bridge the gap between their top-tier domestic competition, Serie A Elite, and England’s Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) and France’s Élite 1 Féminine.
It will be a tough few years if Italy want to stay at the level they reached in New Zealand three years ago, and it won’t be any easier when the sport descends on Australia in 2029. At European level, Ireland are moving closer to England and France, while South Africa have stirred internationally, and Fiji have shown what they are capable of.
They will continue to develop their highly-entertaining attacking style, and the hope has to be that they can cut out the cheap penalties and momentary losses of concentration that so undermines their work.
“It’s been a tough tournament, but we come away with this game,” Ostuni Minuzzi said. “We know how to play the way we want; this is our style, so we come away with a game where we could play this style of game out there, so we’re very happy.
“We wanted to show what kind of Italy we want to be, so we stuck together and did a very good performance. That was what we wanted to show in the first two matches, but we couldn’t so we wanted to finish well.”
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