Michele Lamaro on the rugby nation Italy must now replicate

Michele Lamaro views Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash with England at the Stadio Olimpico as the stage for Italy to prove they have become a force in the game.

Scotland were dispatched in Rome in round one and Ireland just escaped with a victory when the Azzurri visited Dublin a week later.

Only a 33-8 defeat by Grand Slam-chasing France a fortnight ago has marred an otherwise promising Championship.

Italy have never beaten England in 32 previous meetings but Lamaro insists that must be the goal to validate the strides made.

“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 Azzurri captain said.

“I’m thinking of Argentina, for example – their improvement in the last couple of years was seen in the away game against the All Blacks when they won for the first time.

“England is the closest challenge we’ve got because we play them next, so I think it’s a first step. If you want to be in the top five you have to be able to win these games.

“But it’s not because it’s England, it’s because if you want to really compare yourself to the bigger teams you have to start beating them.

“We’ve come to the point where we want to be very competitive in the whole tournament.

“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 per cent in most areas of the game because these teams are pretty ruthless.”