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One number explains the 57-10 in Perth better than any technical analysis: only three of the fifteen players who would make up Italy’s best available XV were on the pitch that day. That is where the ideal-XV game with Mario of Pillole Ovali starts, and it is less about rankings than about how much of Italy was actually on show this summer.
Who makes the XV
- Front row: Fischetti, Nicotera, Ferrari.
- Locks: Zambonin and Niccolo Cannone – with Zambonin picked ahead of Ruzza “as of today”, both rated very highly.
- Back row: Ross Vintcent, Lorenzo Cannone and Manuel Zuliani, described as three animals who do 70% of the dirty work.
- Half-backs: Stephen Varney, currently rated among the top five scrum-halves in the world, with Paolo Garbisi at fly-half. Behind them: Fusco, Alessandro Garbisi and Page-Relo.
- Backs: Menoncello and Brex in midfield, untouchable; Lynagh on the wing; Capuozzo at full-back.
Why Andretti is the name to remember
The player Mario backs hardest is not on that list yet. Mattia Andretti, born in 2008, has something more special than the rest in his view: give him real minutes at Benetton and within a couple of years he can jump the queue. The precedent he cites is Menoncello, who skipped the same steps.
The surprise of the year, meanwhile, has them both nodding: Jaheim Noel Wilson and Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, for a physicality Italian rugby simply has not had before, now paired with offloading and running.
What is the real horizon for this Italy?
Not 2027. The potentially strongest side, Mario argues, is the one that will reach the 2031 World Cup: the generation that joins today’s Under 20 group to the young players already knocking on the senior door. In the meantime the 2027 World Cup has one declared, concrete target: the match against Georgia, in a pool that also contains South Africa.
How to read the summer
With eleven fifteenths of the ideal XV missing, the summer tour was what it was: a test for the wider squad, not a portrait of the best Italy. That does not excuse the performance in Perth, but it does explain why November is a different appointment altogether.
Read also: Italy’s season: the average that counts is a weighted one · Benetton is far more than a club side · all news
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