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Andrea Duodo has no interest in looking back. Speaking to DanPat Rugby at the Gruppo Bevanda Malamocco third-half gathering on Venice Lido, the president of the Italian Rugby Federation picked his words carefully: this is the “incoming season”, not the one just gone. Not to hide a few pages, he explained, but because the calendar ahead leaves no room for post-mortems.
He did, in fact, sum up the year in two sentences. On one side the “extremely positive” moments: the Six Nations win over England, 23-18 at the Stadio Olimpico on 7 March 2026, Italy’s first ever against the English, which Duodo called “unrepeatable”, and the 26-19 win over Australia in Udine on 8 November 2025. On the other, “a few missteps made just now”, which the president would rather not overweight.
The summer tour and player fatigue
Those missteps were the three Nations Championship defeats of the summer: 27-10 to Japan in Tokyo, 47-17 to the All Blacks in Wellington and 57-10 to Australia in Perth. For Duodo wins and losses are part of a long road, and the summer dip was the consequence of an endless season and the players’ “mental and physical wear”.
He kept coming back to logistics: time zones to cross and twelve-hour flights between games. A tour de force that, he argued, southern hemisphere sides never face when they come to Europe, with a couple of hours’ difference at most and a similar climate.
“There are people who have played thousands of minutes, and they were wrung out.”
Hence the plea not to stop at the scoreline: learn from it and do better next time. An analysis that, it must be said, matches what those who covered the tour saw first-hand: the physical problem was already obvious in Perth.
November: South Africa, Argentina and Fiji
“Next time” is close. In November Italy close the Nations Championship pool phase with three home games: South Africa in Turin on the 7th, Argentina in Genoa on the 14th and Fiji in Udine on the 21st, ahead of the finals weekend at Twickenham. Duodo named the Springboks first, a side that will arrive “well prepared” after a summer of southern hemisphere battles, and expects an Italy “far more motivated” than on tour.
Then the Six Nations, where the stated aim is to confirm what was achieved in 2026, and finally the Rugby World Cup in Australia, 1 October to 13 November 2027, with Italy in Pool B alongside South Africa, Georgia and Romania.
What are Italy’s targets for 2026-27?
Duodo refused to set a sporting target on paper: the players, he said, “will give everything and earn on the pitch” whatever is right for Italy to get. His trust is in “a young group”. On the World Cup, though, he did offer a pointer: with the tournament expanded to 24 teams and a round of 16, getting out of the pool remains the “almost mandatory” step, but this time it means running straight into one of the big guns. “Right now everyone says England,” he admitted, “and that’s where we’ll really see.”
Six Nations or World Cup? The provocation
Asked to choose between four Six Nations wins and a World Cup knockout place, the president dodged with a smile. The World Cup, he noted, comes every four years; holding Italy’s position in the Six Nations gives a short-range view of what the team can become. In other words: the home tournament first, then Australia. As for November, the line wrote itself: Duodo will be happy “if we confirm some good performances”. South Africa permitting.
Read also: Duodo: “Italian Rugby’s Foundations? Credit the Clubs, Not the FIR”
Read also: Italy’s road to 2027: the November tests, a must-win Six Nations and the World Cup pool
Read also: Australia-Italy 57-10 in Perth
The full interview with Andrea Duodo is on the DanPat Rugby YouTube channel. Subscribe and tell us in the comments: is November already judgement time for this Italy?
DANPAT Rugby