Italy Name Initial 6 Nations Squad – New Coach, New Hope?

Gonzalo Quesada has named his squad for the 2024 Six Nations: Selections, ins and outs, fixtures

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Italian squad for the Six Nations 2024 folks has been announced by their new coach Gonzalo kisada the former coach of the hawz of s fron and former Argentinian International he is I believe generally High highly regarded certainly by Argentinian fans many would have liked to see him in charge of L

Pumas instead of the aoui but uh yeah his first Squad is certainly interesting one a few UNCA guys and some excitement in the backline we’ll have a look at the squad some of the fixtures they’ve got coming and you guys can let us know your thoughts on

How you reckon the Italians might go in what is a partly at least rebuilding year for them now I should say this podcast is brought to you by eoro the official investing and trading partner of Premiership rugby tackle investing the smart way and join millions of UK investors on eoro today the friendly

Platform for serious investors eoro is is a multi-asset investment platform the value of your Investments may go up or down your capital is at risk but yes cheers tooro for sponsoring this episode and cheers to Planet rugby as well now in terms of the squad I’m pleased to see

The Return of Jam lucazi at Hooker he’s only 23 years old he’s already got 17 caps he missed the world cup with injury I want to say this time last year maybe after the Six Nations last year he was in great form then got himself injured

So we haven’t seen and play for Italy for a while which is a shame they had to go with like of H fivr and lucab Bei and whatnot at the World Cup but lucazi I think is the guy uh we’ll see how he goes alongside manfredy and nikota props

Is one where I’m a little bit more concerned because of the six props named three of them are uncapped which is unusual but it speaks to the lack of available players with the lues of Ferrari and richion being injured I think Nema might be injured as well

Someone correct me if I’m wrong on that one but you’ve got the cap guys with chiarelli fisti and zeli and then uncap guys noera roli and Spano so yeah they have to call on some I want to say youth I mean all these guys are in their early 20s I mean

Noa’s the the oldest at 25 so in terms of rugby player not that old and in particular prop props tend to get better with age just like a fine wine so yes I worry a little bit for the Italian Guys at scrum time I mean roli has mainly been a replacement I think

Likewise spolo has had just um maybe just over half of his games as a replacement uh for beniton so we got good work rate though I guess that’s the main thing I do back fisti I reckon he’s pretty bloody good and then um yeah they go with chiarelli or zeli is a starting

Tight head we’ll kind of have to wait and see locks and loose forward so nio canone is probably going to be one of the starting locks alongside Ruta I would imagine but then you’ve got a bunch of guys like fetto Yaki zambonin as well and some of those guys like FY

Could slau in as a loose forward if needs me there’s no real bolters in terms of UNCA guys there but for’s only had one game he’s only had one cap for and he mostly plays from the bench for bennetton Yi’s had six so still single digits and zambon has only

Had three caps so capped but not the most experienced guys you guys know I love Ruta I feel like he’s criminally underrated in terms of international standards I love my stats he’s always one of the top line out guys he’s one of the top tacklers and he’s one of the top

Uh ball carriers so what else do you want um I feel like he’s amazing he’s got 50 caps he has to start for mine alongside nicoo Canon but we’ll kind of wait and see now loose forwards is one where the coach cassada has a genuine headache in a good way situation because

He’s got lots of guys to pick from Mel Laro is going to be Captain he’ll play on the open side in all likelihood he’s only 25 years old he’s already got 33 caps he’s Kraken player great work rate will be a little bit burned with the way he was

Substituted uh at the World Cup by coach Kieran Crowley went out in the second half to 1 minute and then was pulled which probably wasn’t the best look but zuliani is also unfortunate to play in the same position in his captain as the open side because he’s been a kind of

Great tackle and turnover Merchant too plus decent on the ball carry so he got two really good sevens there then you’ve got the guy whose name who I can’t really say because it gets centered by YouTube as a uh swear word basically um Sebastian starts with an N uh the

Zimbabwean Italian 29 y played Blindside a lot for Italy kind of through the dark times and now into more like these brighter times with this youthful Squad around him um 52 caps I believe the most experienced guy in the Ford pack in terms of caps just ahead of Ruta um

He’ll probably be Blindside but there’s some genuinely good competition you got Lorenzo Kone the established number eight brother of nio and then you got a couple of UNCA guys in Ross vson and alesandro isor so isor tackling machine for Benatar only 23 Blind Side open side

And then Von plays for exit to came through the Italian system he played under 20s for Italy 21 years old seven or eight so maybe the bench for one of those guys but then you got a displ zuliani it’s a tough problem to have but a good problem to have for uh coach

Cassada average age of the Fords is under 25 just under 24.8 years old so very young Ford pack I do worry about the props but yeah we’ll kind of see how they go backs wise there’s no uncap guys which is kind of pleasing so it’s more consistent garbes that’s alesandro pedo

And Van are your three halfbacks I don’t think that Italy have got a number one halfback just here they took four to the world cup with Fusco there as well I believe he is injured at the minute so that Still Remains a bit of a battle ped

R is the oldest of the three halfbacks at 25 so still more development from those guys to come then you got the two 10 Tommy Allen and Paulo garbis although both of them at least under Crowley have had a secondary position I mean G’s played a bit of 12 and Allen’s played a

Bit of 15 so do you go with Gabi as kind of the future or do you go with Tommy Ellen the 30-year-old who is uh I believe the oldest guy in the backline he’s the only one who’s 30 years old is he the only guy in the entire Squad

Who’s 30 no chiarelli is 31 so young young site uh then mid fielders you’ve got brecks you’ve got manello it’s great to see him back after missing out on the World Cup which was devastating for him Mory xanon um again flexibility in these ranks bricks is probably the specialist

Kind of 13 men onello inside Center outside Center Mor ins Al wing and um zanon ins Al so yeah how uh how the coach decides to deploy the Midfield I mean you could potentially go Allen gari and Bricks or you could go gari at 10

Man and cello at 12 brex at 13 um yeah I’m I’m curious to see how the new coach decides to deploy these guys and then outside backs you’ve got some genuine excitement with Pier Bruno who’s crazy that he’s 27 but he’s been really good for Italy when he’s played M for zebra

Simone ji who’s been phenomenal for Ze he’s already got six tries this season on a team which doesn’t win many games Monte yanu is playing as rugby and Leon now uh great X Factor tackle busting Winger Cup watso who is is at some point definitely going to get called Caputo or

Caputo by one of the commentators at some point Capo does he play fullback does he play Wing if you want to go with the taller fullback you go with pony cuz he’s like six foot something 192 what is that in feet 6′ one he’s a pretty big

Guy uh couple wats are not as big but very very elusive you can play them on the wing you can play them at fullback uh either way is good the backs are also averaging an age of under 25 24.6 so the average age of the squad

Under 25 younger than a very young Welsh Squad which has already been named average number of caps just 18 uh coach Casada did say now we will go back to the basics of our game and the attack and defense structures so it’s basically order of the day with a new coach right

You need to get the basic structures in place and kind of build from there say they don’t have a lot of time available and they’re going to try and concentrate on their work as much as as possible so yeah get the basics right first um they’re not going to be expected to to

Win any games if they can win one I think uh fans will be pretty satisfied with how they’re going especially when you consider I already mentioned richion and Ferrari are out uh there’s no Dino lamb he’s injured there’s no polo oogo he’s injured pavani seems to have been

Dropped which was a little bit of a surprising one um halifi I think made the initial Squad but was then cut by the loose forwards are genuinely pretty competitive for the Italian Squad so yeah uh England at home first can they catch Steve borwick side on the bounce

Maybe in all likelihood no they’ve never beaten the English uh then away to Ireland that’s tough hopefully they can keep all their players on the field this time after was it the last time they went to Dublin they had to play them with 13 because they got a red carded

Forward I feel like it was then France away goodness to me that’s horrible away to France then the week before you were away to Ireland nasty uh home to Scotland maybe that’s the game you target to win and then away to Wales them against Wales will be interesting because they’re both pretty

Young squads and both uh got a bunch of uncapped guys especially a few front rowers so yeah we will see how things go with the Italians you guys let us know what the expectations are for them cheers again tooro for spons the episode and to Planet rugby as well you guys Len

Thoughts talk to you again soon