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Nobody who has packed down in Italy’s front row minces their words when the scrum comes up. In his interview with DanPat Rugby, Martin Castrogiovanni — capped 119 times by Italy between 2002 and 2016 — explained why the technical growth of the Italian front row has impressed him, despite a playing base far smaller than the major nations.
Fewer players, more technique
For Castrogiovanni, the starting point is the numbers game: “We have to remember that we’re basically the weakest of these nations, in terms of numbers. If you look at a league like the French one, with sixteen clubs and five hundred thousand people playing rugby, we have forty-four thousand. But with our numbers we manage to do things that a lot of other nations do with a lot more money. We should be very proud of what we’ve achieved so far.”
That comparison reflects Castrogiovanni’s own perception and should be read as such: the most recent official figures put France at 364,664 licensed players in the 2025 season (FFR) and Italy at 65,114 registered players in 2025/26 (FIR) — different from the numbers quoted off the cuff in the interview, though they still point to a wide gap between the two rugby nations.
Why does Italy’s scrum “still scare people”?
According to Castrogiovanni, Italy’s front row has stopped trying to match the world’s heaviest packs on pure size and has instead built its identity on technique, staying competitive even against bigger, heavier opponents such as South Africa and Ireland.
“Technically, in the scrum, we’ve always been ahead of the others, and over time that shows. You don’t have South Africa’s props who weigh a hundred and thirty kilos, you have someone like Fischetti, like Ferrari, who are smaller but technically far better than the rest, because anyone can have brute strength, but technique is something that has always defined us.”
A direct reference to Italy’s current starting front row, Danilo Fischetti (Northampton Saints, 58 caps) and Simone Ferrari (Benetton, 69 caps), the two props at the heart of Italy’s scrum in the last Six Nations.
The legacy of another Argentine-Italian generation
Castrogiovanni wasn’t the only Argentine-born player to leave a mark on Italian rugby: Sergio Parisse and Gonzalo Canale played alongside him in the same years. It’s a thread that, in the former prop’s view, has partly picked up again with the arrival of another Argentine on the touchline, head coach Gonzalo Quesada.
Read also: Castrogiovanni: “Once You Wear the Azzurro, You’re Its Guardian Forever”
The full interview is available on DanPat Rugby’s YouTube channel.
DANPAT Rugby