Tommaso Allan positive about the future of Italian rugby

Tommaso Allan is confident in the future of Italian rugby, saying that there is a ‘New Italy‘. The topic and phrasing of a ‘New Italy’ has been spoken about in Kieran Crowley’s camps as he seeks to change the fortunes of the Italian rugby team.

When asked whether there was a ‘New Italy’, the Harlequins and Italy back replied: “Yes the term has been thrown around training camps.

“Over the next five or six years if the boys keep improving then it will be a competitive Italy side.”

Speaking on Episode Two of The Rugby Paper Podcast, Allan said “We are a young team, we are trying to find our own identity and DNA.

“You’re not going to get the results straight away but there is a lot of confidence in the youngsters coming in – even in the U20’s there’s a few good players.

“For the future, we have decent players coming through we need to gel them together and find you own identity.”

Following Harlequins defeat to Sale Sharks in the Premiership on Sunday, Allan rushed to watch the Italians opening game with France.

Commenting, he said: “There’s definitely been a massive improvement from the last Six Nations. The defence has definitely improved.”

“We scored one try but it was a little frustrating that we could not convert more chances. We had a few balls in the 22 around 50 minutes into the game.”

“It is a lot more promising than last year and I’m hoping the boys can get more over the next couple weeks. Its not the easiest two games, opening against France and England.”

Looking to the future, Allan felt that the Italian side need to improve their attack in order to be more competitive.

“Teams do tend to score more than 20 points against us so we need to find a way to score a little more,” he said.

“First half which seemed to be competitive and after that it slipped away a little bit. The boys were up for it and the defence was a lot more intense. The boys made their tackles which is good. It’s the question of can we maintain it for 80 mins?”

Reflecting on why Italy have been unable to win a Six Nations game since 2015, Allan felt that they had not had the correct tactics in attack that has made them leaky in defence.

He said: “We tried to attack from everywhere on the field which at international level is quite difficult to do. You need a lot more structure and play in the opposition half. It left for us dead.”

This tactic would mean that late in the game, fatigue would set in and the Italians would be leaky in defence.

He continued: “We want to play for 80 mins so attacking from everywhere on the field means you’re going to be pretty knackered after 50.

“So, Kieran (Crowley) has brought a lot more structure to the team.”

Listen to The Rugby Paper Podcast now on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon streaming platforms, as well as The Rugby Paper website.

Apple listeners, listen here

Spotify listeners, listen here

The podcast is available free of charge here on The Rugby Paper website