Italy returns from Twickenham defeated but not downsized

On the screen of the Twickenham stadium, the rugby cathedral of the northern hemisphere (the southern one is definitely Eden Park, in Auckland, New Zealand) it says 56:25. It’s the moment that the Italian national team has been waiting for since the 67th minute of an Italy-Scotland match played in Florence on 14 November 2020: back on the pitch Jake Polledri. Two years and three months of mental and psychological recovery, because that operation in which Jake remains on the ground all the ligaments of his right knee are taken away and the calf, tibia, fibula and, above all, the neurological endings are injured. Twenty-seven months have passed since that afternoon. Twenty-seven months in which the third blue line also experienced the sudden death of his brother, Sam. Twenty-seven months that would have put anyone on the ropes, in which he had to relearn to walk in order to run again. This is what keeps Polledri and the entire national team together.

If with France a bold Italy has scared one of the strongest teams in the world, yesterday she got mired in a dirty match with the masters of this particular form of rugby: the British. If you want a dirty rugby, which involves interruptions, scrums, narrow play, aggressive defense, you can ask the national team in the white shirt, which when in difficulty relies on the much mistreated headboard game.

Walking today to run tomorrow, this is the mantra that Crowley’s boys must keep in mind, bringing with them the good things that happened yesterday too, because Twickenham’s 31-14 is not to be completely thrown away. The intensity, the throw-ins, the few flashes of open play, the readings of the scrum-halfs, Marco Riccioni’s try, who returned to the starting lineup after his knee injury, the grit of Sebastian Negri, who first tackles Owen Farrell, then he puts his hands in his face and there is a fight because the English captain has dared to complain. Take and place in an ideal basket of right ideas, of attitudes to keep. Of course, in a context of positive aspects, we must take into account the things that are wrong, such as waiting to understand how he is Michael Lamaro. The captain, who was injured on the twenty-fourth, is today an essential element of the group, a group that has to rely on the senators and which, fortunately, after a week’s break, will find fundamental players again for the match against Ireland, such as Paolo Garbisi, the fly-half who will be able to relay with Tommaso Allan and who, indeed, in the typical formation, should be the owner.

Yesterday there was a lack of clarity: there were errors in handling the ball, fueled by a closed scrum that didn’t work as well as with France. In suffering you don’t express yourself well, especially if the opponents never manage the game on the frontline, preferring to get stuck in a game that is so reminiscent of rugby forty years ago.

For their part, the British had to win, necessarily. For this Steve Borthwick kept the explosive genius of Marcus Smith on the bench for 73 minutes, shelving and relegating only to the last seven minutes of the game the idea of ​​the double fly-half which had been an intuition of his predecessor Eddie Jones, but which in the long run became his sentence. For this, above all, Steve Borthwick thought that taking a step back in terms of quality could have taken a step forward in the standings. And so it was.

In fact Italy does not come back resized by London, on the contrary: understanding what’s wrong and patching it up is necessary to grow. The Azzurri have won against Wales, Portugal, Romania, Samoa and Australia in the last year, but fortunately the current situation is not an end point. The transition also dutifully passes through uncertain half-steps, but it has the great advantage of tending towards a greater objective. We have never beaten England and as a result we have never won at Twickenham. Maybe it’s not the time yet, maybe it won’t be soon. But the day will come when, after walking a lot, after falling and putting our feet back on the road, we will run.

There will be no one there. It just takes patience.