For the first time the capital hosts the presentation of the Tournament, which in 2000 saw the entry of the Azzurri. Captain Lamaro: “Scotland wants revenge, but we have lost too many…”
To celebrate the 25 editions of the Six Nations played by Italy, which joined in 2000, the Six Nations leaves the United Kingdom for the first time and chooses Rome as the venue for the international launch of the edition starting in a week. Thus, if the six captains were able to sit at the Colosseum for a truly original photo, the splendid Palazzo Brancaccio then also hosted the six coaches and international journalists. The Tournament will start on Friday 31 January with the match between France and Wales in Paris (9.15pm), while on Saturday 1 February the afternoon will open with the debut of Italy, awaited by Scotland at Murrayfield (3.15pm). The first day’s program will then be completed with the two-time reigning champions Ireland hosting England in Dublin (5.45pm). Speaking of Ireland, at the presentation in Rome, the first official outing as coach for Simon Easterby, who for this edition will take over the duties of Andy Farrell, who has been entrusted with the construction of the British&Irish Lions in view of the tour of Australia in July 2025.
Quesada
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Italy enters the starting blocks fresh from the best Six Nations ever, which ended with 2 wins and a draw, and therefore with a little more attention than in previous years. “Although for us coaches it is much better when there aren’t too many expectations,” jokes the Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada. “It’s true, however, that there is new, different attention towards us, but one that we deserved with some performances, some good matches, some victories. Our challenge, however, is to continue to be aware of our reality, of the fact that compared to our competitors we are still behind in the logic of preparation conditions and depth of choice. But this doesn’t change the desire to prepare ourselves with ethics and passion to go on the pitch and perform at 120%.” More attention and therefore more responsibility? “This could turn into stress, but it should instead represent our motivation to best respond to these expectations.” Compared to his first year as Italy coach, there will be a little something to correct: “But only in reference to adjustments to be made to the management of away games and the approach to the match, because last year there were some small problems. I thought that I would certainly make mistakes, that all that information transmitted in the first week of work could lead to confusion. I thought it would be a disaster… But I had to start doing it and then master them little by little and in fact that was the case. The results were seen game after game.” Of course, with the club it was different. “Totally different. Here in the national team the most difficult exercise is to go straight to the essentials and give a lot of confidence to the players. In the club you have a lot of time to talk to the players. Even though with the frequency of matches we coaches have little time to prepare. In the national team you have more time to develop yourself and think about the evolutions you want to bring about.” There is certainly the personal brand that Quesada wanted to give to his Italy from day one: “The path for me was very clear: the team had to turn towards a more Latin inclination, around passion, heart, determination and explore delve deeply into the roots of Italian rugby and subsequently build our rugby. Now the path is clear, but even more difficult, because we will have to go into details.”
CAPTAIN
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For his part, the Italian captain Michele Lamaro is trying to project himself already into his debut match against Scotland. “He will want revenge after our victory in Rome a year ago,” says the flanker. “But I can add that for our part we have suffered many defeats and therefore we have something more to fight for. For this reason we want to show up at the start of the tournament super pumped. Maybe in these days we will try to lower the tension a little, to raise it again from Monday onwards when we start to get closer to the match”. Lamaro, like Quesada, is also convinced that the good results of 2024 will put Italy under different pressure: “We will have all eyes on us, new critical issues to face at a new level and therefore there is a present need to respond, but at the same time to focus on behaviors to improve every day. Many people talk about us, there are many expectations, but we will have to be good at leaving all these things off the pitch, concentrating on daily work to raise our standards.”
PLAN
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Italy will make their home debut on Saturday 8 February against Wales (3.15 pm), in the match that will open the program of the second day. Then, after the first week of break, on Sunday 23 February the Olimpico will host Italy-France (4pm), then another break and England-Italy on Sunday 9 March (4pm), to close on Saturday 15 March with Italy-Ireland (4pm). 3.15pm). The 2025 edition of the Six Nations will also mark the return to Rai, which will however only broadcast Italy’s matches, live in simulcast with Sky and Now, where instead it will be possible to watch all the matches of the Tournament. As well as for the Six Nations of Italy Under 20 and the women’s team (the tournament in this case will begin on March 23).
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