Italy may have succumbed to their fifth straight defeat of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations at home to England on Super Saturday, but coach Franco Smith is confident the future is bright for the Azzurri.
Having fallen to Wales, France and Scotland ahead of the near-eight-month break in play, Italy returned to action a week prior to the visit of the Red Rose, going down 50-17 to Ireland.
Despite the heavy defeat in Dublin, Edoardo Padovani and Paolo Garbisi tries had given Smith cause for optimism ahead of their Championship-concluding clash against England, who they had never previously beaten in the teams’ 26 meetings.
The hosts were dealt an early blow when away scrum-half Ben Youngs crossed for a fifth-minute try on his 100th England appearance, and Owen Farrell stretched their advantage to ten points from the tee.
But Italy rallied and halved the deficit at half-time through a silky Jake Polledri score, the Gloucester No.8 sprinting clear to dot down after Carlo Canna had capitalised on Kyle Sinckler’s handling error.
And although his side failed to add to their tally as the eventual champions sealed a bonus-point 34-5 win with further tries from Youngs, Jamie George, Tom Curry and Henry Slade, Smith was pleased with how his youthful team responded to defeat at the Aviva.
“We offered a different performance in terms of attitude, often putting England in difficulty,” the 48-year-old said. “With a little more luck we could have scored a couple of tries in the first half.
“With such a performance we can hope for the future. I’m clearly not happy with the result and I never want to lose, like all the team members, but we have seen something that gives us confidence in our work in view of the next matches.”
Skipper Luca Bigi similarly insisted no member of the playing squad was smiling after finishing bottom of the Championship ranks for the fifth year running, but he believes that the blooding of new talent could stand them in good stead going forward.
Next up for the Italians is the Autumn Nations Cup, during which Bigi hopes Group B ties against Scotland, Fiji and France – and a subsequent placing match – can yield victories and generate further encouragement heading into 2021.
He said: “The result does not smile at us and I cannot be 100 per cent happy as Franco pointed out, but there are some points on which we worked hard during the week and there was a change of direction with respect to the game in Ireland.
“We will now have four days to recover after three intense weeks. The attitude we have seen on the pitch is the one from which we will start again in view of the next meeting and our Autumn Nations Cup commitments.”
