Italy U20, Roberto Santamaria: “Ireland is a team that aims high”

Roberto Santamaria’s Italy U20s are preparing to face Ireland of the same age on the first day of the World Rugby U20 Championship.

The kick-off of the match, one of the most tense of the last U20 Six Nations, is scheduled for 16:30. The Azzurrini and the young Irish know each other very well, in fact, as the Italian head coach recalled.

“We know Ireland well, we saw how they went in the Six Nations and we played against them often. Our preparatory match for the Tournament was against Ireland, like the previous year – Santamaria told OnRugby Podcast – Even before the last world championship we had the opportunity to do a warm up test with Ireland, so we know well the rugby he tries to express.”

“It is a complete team that reached the final last year, losing to France. So it is a team that certainly aims very high. Despite having recently changed part of its staff [l’ex head coach Richie Murphy è il nuovo capo allenatore dell’Ulster, il nuovo allenatore è Willie Faloon] I don’t think they will change their style of play much, as it comes from an idea that I don’t think depends so much on individual coaches, but on the entire Irish system. In fact, the youth national team is very similar to the senior team in how it plays, and also has the Leinster mold.”

Listen now to the episode of OnRugby Podcast with Roberto Santamaria

The Azzurrini’s youth world championship starts off straight away with one of the favorites for the title, and then continues with two tough challenges against Australia and Georgia.

“Australia is the team we will face in the second match,” Santamaria said, “a team that has not managed to be high up in the U20 Rugby Championship standings, or at least not in the top two places. However, they have been very competitive in all the matches they have faced. With New Zealand they were ahead by ten points and the score was overturned only at the end of the match. And with South Africa or Argentina, the matches were a bit affected by the weather.”

“But a team that expresses a lot of play, a really important volume of play, and has great speed of execution. It will be an important challenge because it tries to express a dynamic, fast and also opportunity-based game. It certainly has key players who can make the difference.”

Read also: Guide to the Under-20 World Cup: the favourites, the young champions. Everything you need to know

“Georgia, on the other hand, is a slightly different team, which tries to play an interesting game with the three-quarters, but its strength is definitely in the forwards. It certainly has a physical and rough scrum package. In short, in the matches it has played, one with France and two with England, it has shown that it is a team with a lot of potential.”

Santamaria then made it clear that he wasn’t expecting the usual stereotypical Georgia, physically strong but monothematic in their game: “In those games they scored in all ways, they scored with the forwards and with the three-quarters. A complete team that tries to play good rugby.”

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