The 'fun' Paolo Garbisi is having despite Italy facing wooden spoon
Fit-again Paolo Garbisi has insisted there is a great level of optimism now surrounding Italy even though they face finishing bottom of the Guinness Six Nations table this Saturday for the eighth season in a row. Not since 2015, when they defeated Scotland at Murrayfield to finish fifth, have the Italians avoided sixth and last place in the championship.
However, despite their overall record showing just a single win in eight championships featuring seven consecutive wooden spoons, Garbisi explained that Italy are very much on an upward trajectory under Kieran Crowley and the players have been having fun with the highly skilled, all-out attack approach implemented by the Kiwi.
The Italians secured a losing bonus point in their opening round fixture versus France, the world’s number two ranked side, while they also gave the number one Ireland quite a scare when they met those teams in Rome last month.
They have since disappointingly lost to Wales at home but have one final shot at avoiding last place when they travel to play Scotland this Saturday in Edinburgh. The Scots are coming off the back of a six-day turnaround following the crushing disappointment of their Sunday loss to Ireland and won’t have the injured Stuart Hogg or Finn Russell available for the round five fixture.
“Italy haven’t played this brand of rugby before and it’s something different,” enthused Garbisi on this week’s Rugby Pod. “It was a challenge for us at the beginning but now it is fun because you see how you can really break defences with this system having all these opportunities, having all the players around you and having so many different options, you can see it actually works on the field. This is why it is fun.
“Sometimes we probably are too risky as we play from our own half, sometimes it can be against us but it is fun to play in this type of system and this brand of rugby. It can be very positive and very useful for us. We have to just be better in terms of skill set, we need to be better on passes or some options, but it is so fun and it is the right way.”
Prior to last March’s breakthrough win over Wales, their first success in the tournament since 2015, there was much public debate about whether Italy deserved their place in the tournament with Georgia looking for entry.
That argument has been largely silenced by the entertaining brand of rugby the Italians are now producing under Crowley, but Garbisi wants the finishing touches to materialise and his team to start registering wins in a World Cup year where they play minnows Namibia and Uruguay before encountering New Zealand and France.
Asked if something special was brewing in Italian rugby, Garbisi said: “I hope so but we just need to put everything together in order to get the wins because at the end of the day, this is what matters. Yes, we can be pleased because we are performing really well in most parts of the game, but we need to get the wins now.
“We are still in that situation where people can say, ‘Yeah, Italy played good’ or ‘They are there for the most part of the game’ or ‘They are not that far away’. But I feel like we need to get some positive results now, not only this chat about how good we play.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments