Debut for the Azzurrini at the Youth World Cup: the toughest test straight away
The Ireland-Italy preview of the under 20 World Cup
Italy’s campaign at the World Rugby U20 Championship starts off with the toughest obstacle: Ireland, their opponents on the opening day, are one of the favourites to win the title in the annual edition of the youth world championship.
A year later it’s still South Africa, it’s still Cape Town. Roberto Santamaria leads the Azzurrini expedition that will try to improve on last year’s eleventh place.
It won’t be easy, given the difficult group that the boys captained by Jacopo Botturi will have to face, but the team has good qualities and could surprise.
It would also be surprising to be able to compete with the young Irish, who are well known by the Italian kids. During the Six Nations category, the away feat was narrowly missed, but this time it will be more difficult to surprise opponents of this caliber.
Read also: Italy U20, Roberto Santamaria: “Ireland is a team that aims high”
For both teams it is essential to start off on the right foot, but the match has a greater specific weight for Ireland: if they do not want to have problems for the first place in the group they must manage to win the first match without too many worries.
The Azzurrini aim to pick up where they left off, and therefore from the ability to cause problems for any opponent in the scrum and in drives from the lateral throw-in. On this profitable basis, the Azzurri staff is called upon to evolve an offensive game that has been rather sterile and monothematic during the U20 Six Nations.
Compared to the spring, the first line-up put on the pitch by Santamaria sees Sergio Pelliccioli and Mattia Jimenez starting from the first minute, they who usually played the left prop and the scrum half of backup. For the rest, plenty of room for continuity.
For its part, Ireland has changed several protagonists compared to the match in Cork on February 9th. Almost all the most anticipated ones are there: the fly-half Jack Murphy, the third row Sean Edogbo, the captain Evan O’Connell. Only the brightest star is missing, Brian Gleeson, recently returned from an injury and not included in the match list, even though he is in the list of those called up.
Read also: World Rugby u20 Championship: the program of the first day and where you can watch it in live streaming for free
Ireland is a physically strong team, with excellent athleticism and which makes system play one of its strong points, a bit like the tradition of all Irish teams. The first need for the Azzurrini will be to fight in the winning phases to prevent their opponents from having large periods of possession, during which they can do harm with their qualities.
A victory would obviously be pure gold for Italy, allowing them to immediately start their World Cup campaign in style, but even a bonus point to move up the rankings in the event of a defeat would be something positive to draw from this complex race, keeping in mind that the first is the hardest obstacle and that there will be an opportunity to demonstrate their worth again.
Ireland: 15 Ben O’Connor, 14 Davy Colbert, 13 Finn Treacy, 12 Sam Berman, 11 Hugo McLaughlin, 10 Jack Murphy, 9 Oliver Coffey, 8 Luke Murphy, 7 Max Flynn, 6 Sean Edogbo, 5 Evan O’Connell (c), 4 Alan Spicer, 3 Patreece Bell, 2 Danny Sheahan, 1 Jacob Boyd
Available: 16 Stephen Smyth, 17 Emmet Calvey, 18 Andrew Sparrow, 19 James McKillop, 20 Bryn Ward, 21 Jake O’Riordan, 22 Sean Naughton, 23 Hugh Gavin
Italia: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Marco Scalabrin, Federico Zanandrea, 12 Nicola Bozzo, 11 Lorenzo Elettri, 10 Martino Pucciariello, 9 Mattia Jimenez, 8 Jacopo Botturi (c), 7 Luca Bellucci, 6 Cesare Zucconi, 5 Giacomo Milano, 4 Mattia Midena , 3 Davide Ascari, 2 Nicholas Gasperini, 1 Sergio Pelliccioli
Available: 16 Valerio Siciliano, 17 Francesco Gentile, 18 Federico Pisani, 19 Tommaso Redondi, 20 Nelson Casartelli, 21 Lorenzo Casilio, 22 Simone Brisighella, 23 Patrick De Villiers
At this link you can consult the biographical notes of the Azzurri of the Italian national rugby under 20 team.
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