1
Italy resort to bizarre ceremony to help move on from All Blacks defeat
Italy head coach Kieran Crowley had a tough job on his hands this week trying to help his side move on from shipping 14 tries against the All Blacks in a 96-17 loss. To make matters infinitely harder, he had to do this whilst simultaneously preparing to face a France team seven days later that have already beaten the All Blacks this World Cup.
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It seems like a devilish task, and in such extreme circumstances an extreme method might well be the only way to help Italy change their mindset. Well Crowley has not been afraid to resort to peculiar practices this week as they prepare to face the tournament hosts in Lyon on Friday.
Italy scrum-half Stephen Varney admitted this week that the Azzurri were “devastated” after the All Blacks match, and in order to regain their confidence, Crowley organised a fire ceremony for the entire squad and staff. Before notions of The Wicker Man spring to mind, this was an effective way to draw a line in the sand and focus on a match where they could qualify for the quarter-finals with an unlikely win.
“We were quite devastated by our performance,” the Gloucester No9 said. “Going into the week, Kieran brought us in and we needed to get our confidence back so we did this thing where we chucked our thoughts into the fire, sort of thing, and tried to forget about it and take our learnings into this week.
“I think we have done that well and we’ve prepared well for the last few days in training and we’re confident going into Friday.
“Basically, we just wrote our thoughts on a piece of paper and just chucked it into the fire. I think it was a good way of forgetting about it and moving on. Because I don’t think that performance defined us as a team.
“We got our confidence back from training now and hopefully we can put a good performance in on Friday.”
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Lock Federico Ruzza, who starts alongside Varney against Les Bleus, also explained how this ceremony helped the team move on.
“It is important as a team to move on,” the Benetton lock said. “Yes, we had to look back and review the match and some points where we can obviously be better. It’s also important to move on for the next match and to show how good we can be. It’s important to prepare for this match in a proper way and we are.”
Rugby World Cup
Pool A
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
France
3
3
0
0
13
2
New Zealand
3
2
1
0
10
3
Italy
3
2
1
0
10
4
Uruguay
3
1
2
0
5
5
Namibia
4
0
4
0
0
Pool B
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
South Africa
4
3
1
0
15
2
Ireland
3
3
0
0
14
3
Scotland
3
2
1
0
10
4
Tonga
3
0
3
0
0
5
Romania
3
0
3
0
0
Pool C
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Wales
3
3
0
0
14
2
Australia
4
2
2
0
11
3
Fiji
3
2
1
0
10
4
Georgia
3
0
2
1
3
5
Portugal
3
0
2
1
2
Pool D
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
England
3
3
0
0
14
2
Argentina
3
2
1
0
9
3
Japan
3
2
1
0
9
4
Samoa
3
1
2
0
6
5
Chile
4
0
4
0
0
Comments on RugbyPass
The Crusaders can't buy a win this season. Surely Penney's contract won't be renewed. There's still enough talent in the squad that they oughta be winning more.
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1 Go to commentsJust FYI Rugbypass, I for one am tired of your clickbait titles and thumbnails and will be clicking them no longer. Good day.
1 Go to commentsI think Farrell despite all of the stick he gets in the media is still one of if not the best fly half in the world. He is literally the full package. He can kick one of the best in the world, probably has the best defensive game of a fly half in the world and if he wants to he can run, take contact and find an offload to keep the pace of the attack. I dont know why he isnt spoken more about still being one of the best in the world with the likes of dupont. Farrell is the ultimate captain and team leader and is experienced- he has been in nearly any situation you can think of. I still believe due to these reasons that he is England’s best ever player and is still one of the best players in the world.
48 Go to commentsBlues are dominating up front and that’s been a long time coming. They have won the up front confrontation which is where canes, hilanders and act brumbies are also strong.
3 Go to commentsJust watched brumbies v safas game sadly not a show in he’ll thryr anywhere near quarters or semi contention. Admittedly some issues around new comers bot what stands out for me is coaching management, poor game planning and accuracy.
5 Go to commentsOne tough SOB!
16 Go to commentsI’ve put on 4/5 kilos since the beginning of the season too. Not good kilos. Bad kilos.
3 Go to commentsSurely there’s a ‘no knobheads’ policy ?
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1 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Could the victim do a course to reverse the long term CTE damage from the cheapshot?
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157 Go to commentsLove it when we overlap! Promise it was not forethought.
19 Go to commentsjfc can this guy plz stay out of the news for one week
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1 Go to commentsLet’s examine what might be irking the brainless E: Up until 20 years before this coming Julys tests: 16 games: 14 wins for SA; 1 win for Ire; 1 draw From 20 years until July’ tests Ireland V SA: 13 matches Ireland won 8; SA won 4; 1 draw Points scored Ireland 261; SA 189 Ave Winning Margin: Ireland 11 points; SA 4 points (away 3, home 6) Away win record: Ireland 33.33%; SA 25% Neutral matches 1: Ireland win RWC France 2023. Last SA win June 2016 (8 years ago) They boast 3 World cups in that period (they do boast). The above record is not good, probably not much better than theirs against NZ for same period. That’s why the dopey E is starting fights in his head. He will probably ship a yellow when things don’t go their way in the first test.
127 Go to commentsGoode is like a wet fart on The Rugby Pod and should be shoved aside. Jim knows what he is on about and can get on better without Goode’s nasty little cheap shots.
127 Go to comments