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Somewhere between a Wimbledon aside and the football World Cup final, the latest episode of Divagazioni di Rugby — DanPat’s Danilo with Cristian Loviseto of Anonima Piloni — wandered into the question every Azzurri fan has been carrying around for a month: who is actually behind Italy’s starters? For once, the answer is not “nobody”. And that is news.
The context makes it urgent: Tommaso Menoncello has just left Treviso for Toulouse after six seasons, the summer tour rotated half the squad, and the 2027 World Cup in Australia — opening against South Africa on 3 October in Adelaide — is the point on the horizon every selection now bends towards.
The jump from the U20s: the patience rule
The U20 World Championship has put a whole generation in the spotlight, and the temptation to rush them is obvious. The most interesting parallel in the discussion concerns Nicola Luisato: Loviseto sees him following the Marcos Gallorini path — devastating at junior level, then forced to build the next step. Mattia Andretti is a different case: both hosts see him as the most ready, more complete, the one for whom the step up should cost least.
It’s not that you’re in the U20s at twenty and automatically a world-class player a year later. It doesn’t work that way for everyone.
That is the heart of the argument. The pair recall Scalabrin — “an absolute phenomenon” in the U20s two years ago, still waiting for confirmation upstairs — and turn the “our U20s don’t prepare players” complaint on its head: development has individual timelines, and someone like Giacomo Nicotera wasn’t even on the radar at twenty. Add plain bad luck: Ragusi and Alessandro Drago, among the most promising, have had seasons broken by injury.
Falchetto and the dangerous comparisons
The new name in the debate is Falchetto, 18 years old, with running lines Loviseto calls “wonderful”. In the fan chats some have already reached for a Menoncello comparison, and here both hosts hit the brakes at once: “easy now”. The talent is there; the weight of being compared to one of the world’s best centres is not something an 18-year-old needs.
Casarin, the “next Brex”?
The enthusiasm around Casarin is a year old — “an extra flanker in midfield”, DanPat once called him — but the question mark over his physicality remains, and that is what separates prospect centres from real ones. Recent history urges caution: Drago, Mori (playing in France but out of the national picture), Zanon. The succession to Brex is still an open file.
Which U20 talents are closest to the top level?
According to the Divagazioni duo, the closest are Mattia Andretti, already comfortable against older opposition, Nicola Luisato for athletic ceiling and Casarin for his reading of the game, with Falchetto the long-range outsider. The caveats are physicality, consistency and injuries.
The back three heading into 2027
The other half of the conversation is about those already there. Italy’s back-three depth is now such that a starter like Ioane sat out a matchday 23 this tour, while Capuozzo, Trulla and Gallagher didn’t even board the plane. Simone Gesi, whom “vox populi” demanded in an Azzurri shirt three years ago, now has seven or eight players ahead of him; Malik Faissal remains a question mark chasing consistency; and the hosts note young players like Andretti already training with Benetton’s preseason group.
Then the big one: who starts at full-back against South Africa in the 2027 World Cup opener? The line that emerges from Divagazioni is clear — Pani ahead of Capuozzo “on current form”, with Capuozzo moved to the wing and the other spot contested by Lynagh, Faissal and Ioane, not least because, they reason, a coach like Rassie Erasmus would target a lightweight full-back from minute one. Opinions, of course. But the fact the debate exists at all is the real story.
The calendar, at least, is official: Italy open against world champions South Africa on Sunday 3 October 2027 in Adelaide (5:45am CEST), then face Romania on 11 October in Sydney and Georgia on 17 October in Newcastle (3:15am CEST) in Pool B.
For years Italy’s problem was a short blanket. Now the problem is choosing. That is the kind of problem real teams hope to have.
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