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Italy hand Franco Smith top job, for now


Franco Smith wants Sergio Parisse to have at least one more match with Italy (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
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Italy have announced former South Africa international Franco Smith as interim head coach for the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.

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Smith replaces former Harlequins head coach Conor O’Shea who resigned last week after three years in the role.

Former fly-half or centre Smith, who made nine appearances for the Springboks between 1996 and 1999, has previous experience in Italy, having played at Treviso for three years before taking over as head coach at the club for a further six years.

The 47-year-old will be supported by forwards coach Giampiero De Carli, defence coach Marius Goosen and fitness coaches Pete Atkinson and Giovanni Sanguin for the Six Nations campaign which begins at the Principality Stadium against Wales on February 1.

The Italy Rugby Federation will continue their search for a permanent successor and hope to have them in place by July 1, 2020 for the tour of the Americas until the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

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Phantom 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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