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'Kick Italy out and bring in Georgia, that is just rubbish chat... very short-sighted'
Jake Polledri is fed up with the routine. Every time Italy take a bit of a battering in the Six Nations, the aftermath is always dominated by chatter that they don’t merit their place in the tournament and should unceremoniously be chucked out on the scrapheap.
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It was the same old story last weekend. The Azzurri had 42 unanswered points put on them by Wales at the Principality and the fall-out was the now routine ‘what the heck are they doing playing at this level’ type of commentary.
The naysayers have their damning statistics. To put Italy’s current 23-game winless run in the Six Nations into perspective, Polledri was a mere 19-year-old whippersnapper getting hammered at Netherdale with his country’s under-20s when there was last a W placed alongside Italy on the senior team table.
That was February 2015, five years ago, and some of the beatings suffered since have been excruciating. Three times they have been ‘nilled’ and the chasm that has existed is exemplified by how they have conceded 119 tries in the 23 games compared to scoring a mere 38.
And yet Polledri, now all grown up and part of the scene since a 2018 Test debut at Stadio Olimpico versus the Scots, can’t fathom why some people are calling for their heads, wanting to exclude them from a learning ground they are happy to have access to despite the one-sided nature of most of their results.
(Continue reading below…)
The RugbyPod on the second weekend of the Guinness Six Nations
“It’s a massive challenge playing against world-class teams and we’re definitely not the best team in the Six Nations but we are striving to be that,” enthused the 24-year-old to RugbyPass from Paris during their week-long stay in the French capital ahead of Sunday’s round two fixture.
“The Six Nations is a chance to play against these best teams and takes lots of learnings from it. In terms of lots of talk of us coming out of the Six Nations and bringing in Georgia for us, that is just rubbish chat. We beat them quite comfortably (28-17 in November 2018).
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“It’s very short-sighted for someone to say, ‘Oh, just kick them out because they’re losing all the time’. For us to improve we need to play these games and in these venues. That is exactly what you need as an up-and-coming nation. It is very detrimental to Italy to say they should be kicked out.
"I can understand there’s questions around it, it makes sense"
– @chrisjonespress reporting #WALvITA #SixNations ??https://t.co/dcCpowNsQ8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 1, 2020
“It’s a professional sport and you could do every single thing right and you will still have people moaning you’re doing it all wrong. One win against one of these teams and people will be, ‘They do deserve to be there’.
“But if we lose everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and saying we should be leaving. It’s no secret in professional sport that the fans are very up and down, but one win can change people’s perspective of what we have in the Six Nations.”
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What Bristol-born Polledri had last weekend was a very special Six Nations moment in Cardiff, a sort of homecoming if you like playing at the Principality for the first time. His paternal grandmother Luisa emigrated from Italy as a teenager and it was at an ice-cream factory in Devon that she met her Abertillery-born husband, John.
? Congratulazioni Jake Polledri per il tuo primo cap #Italrugby#ITAvSCO pic.twitter.com/cY6YgnHNY0
— Italrugby (@Federugby) March 16, 2018
Now all these many years later in her 90s, she was watching on the TV with great pride as her grandson earned his 14th cap in the land of his grandfather. “She’s 92, 93 now so she can’t leave where she is. It would be unbelievable to get here (to a match) but she just watches on TV in terms of keeping her safe for herself. I don’t think she is very fit to travel any more.
“She gets very emotional watching on TV. She is trying to understand the game. Obviously being 92, 93, she doesn’t quite understand but she loves watching me in an Italian shirt… it was definitely special. I’m not saying I have much Welsh family that I know of but I do have some heritage, and it was a pretty special occasion. All the family were there and I can imagine they were pretty emotional as well.
“They have always come to the games… they even went to Chicago when I wasn’t playing. They are a big rugby family and they love it, especially my father who played himself (Pete represented England under-23s and was one of Bristol’s longest-serving players).”
Living the dream is something the Polledri clan haven’t always been doing as it wasn’t that long ago when Jake was told he wasn’t wanted at the Bristol academy and his route to the pro ranks became juggling lower league rugby at Hartpury with working in the family business, The Soup & Sandwich Bar and four Subway franchises. That grounding existence steeled the now maurading back row to succeed when Gloucester came calling on 2017.
“Hartpury was amazing, especially me coming from Bristol academy telling me I didn’t have a contact and going straight to Hartpury when they were in National One. I think there is a stat where I played 58 out of 60 games in two seasons.
“As a kid at 19, 20, that is unbelievable learning, getting game fitness. That is everything you need. When you are that age that is the perfect standard, that was what made my career. That’s where you’re playing your most minutes and learning the most to move on from there.
? | YOUNG PLAYER OF THE SEASON
You voted @JakePolledri as your Young Player of the Season!
A great breakthrough season! pic.twitter.com/46vh0YE3LJ
— Gloucester Rugby (@gloucesterrugby) April 28, 2018
“When I was working at the same time it was a slice of reality. It made me more determined to become a rugby player. When you getting up and you’re working in a Subway, working weird hours, getting up early or closing up late, it’s ‘this is not for me and I want to become a rugby player’.”
He is still partial to a Subway. “I see one and I’m allowed one, a steak and cheese, but the days eating what you what when you want are gone now, especially when we are here in camp where we get food put in front of us that is all nutritionist checked.”
The Italian ways have certainly rubbed off. The family only visited the odd time when growing up as his nan has some flats over there, but it wasn’t until the under-20s World Cup was hosted in Italy in 2015 that he got a proper insight into how their life works, something since copper-fastened by his senior team involvement.
“The traditions do rub off on you being around the hotel and living to their schedule. They will have snacks at 5 o’clock and then dinner will be at eight, nine o’clock in the evening which, as a person brought up in England with an English tradition, it’s kind of strange because we’d eat all our food at five or six in the evening and that would be it done.
“Back at home I now cook food a lot later, especially coming back from the camps, and you still have your snack as well. Those little traditions with food and those schedules do rub off when I’m back at home,” he explained, adding there is extra pressure now on how to finally become fluent in the language with Franco Smith having taken over the Azzurri from Conor O’Shea.
“I’m definitely a lot better than when I started. I have definitely got a lot better understanding than speaking but with Franco coming in, he is very fluent in Italian and he has all the meetings in Italians so you have to learn it or you will be left behind.
Jake Polledri.
Tackle breaking machine ????@Federugby ??#RWC2019 #ITAvCAN #RWCFukuoka pic.twitter.com/Il2iPryK5z
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 27, 2019
“It is definitely getting there. I’m in an Italian school in Bristol with my girlfriend so when I am not here learning, I’m at home learning. It’s not the easiest thing for an English speaker to pick up another language. I have heard it is easier the other way around, so I’m slowly but surely getting there.”
A bit like the team he is playing for now that they are adapting to an interim coach following O’Shea’s exit six months before his contract was due to expire. “We have had Mike (Catt) and Conor leave and Franco has come in. There is going to be some transition time and although we didn’t want it, that is what has happened.
“It’s just a difference in the way we want to play. It’s just a change. Each person that comes in has different ideas and different philosophies. It’s just a fresh person at the top that wants different things. There is definitely a change in the way we want to play and in training as well.
Il XV in campo per #FRAvITA, seconda sfida degli Azzurri nel @sixnationsrugby 2020 ? https://t.co/PyfFNpYFk1
?Kick off domenica 9 febbraio alle 16, diretta @dmaxitalia
#insieme #rugbypassioneitaliana pic.twitter.com/sihra2T7Fr— Italrugby (@Federugby) February 7, 2020
“At least now we have a game to look back on the way we want to play. From now on there are no real excuses apart from what we put out on the pitch. It’s just recovering, looking back, how we can reduce the silly errors that we conceded.
“You look at how many mistakes Wales made, it would be pretty much minimal whereas if you look at our mistakes and how many times we turned over the ball, it would be really up there. Also a couple of silly penalties – they kick it to the corner and we’re under pressure. I can remember one of our props, (Leigh) Halfpenny kicks the ball and he has run through and they trip him up. That is just a stupid penalty. They even took the three points from that.
“That is something you don’t need and in Six Nations rugby, that kills you off. There were other examples. We must have knocked the ball on two or three times and then you don’t get the ball back against teams like Wales. You just don’t get it back for 20 phases and you’re constantly under the pump.”
That’s been the story for years of Italy’s Six Nations – under the pump and trying to somehow get better against the odds. Paris on Sunday will likely be another example.
WATCH: RugbyPass takes a trek through Italian rugby in this episode of Rugby Explorer
Comments on RugbyPass
I wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
83 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
83 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
4 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
4 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
4 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to comments