Italy captain Sergio Parisse is under no illusions who the current best in World Rugby are: South Africa.
The Azzurri will soon face both New Zealand - whom they pushed pretty hard in June - and the Springboks, before taking on the different and very physical threat of Samoa in a heavy November schedule.
The All Blacks are first up in a sold out San Siro Stadium in Milan - that's 80,000 souls - but face South Africa in the more refined atmosphere of Udine and Parisse is convinced that match will be the benchmark game for his team.
"Without taking anything away from the All Blacks legend, right now South Africa are the best team in the world," said the 26-year-old Stade Français number eight to AFP.
"It will be a great privilege for Italy to play the team that has dominated world rugby over the last two years, winning the 2007 World Cup, beating the British and Irish Lions last summer and winning the last Tri-Nations.
"That match and the one in Milan will allow us to understand how we've progressed since our tour (in June).
"Already we know we can compete with anyone if we play our best in defence but now we have to make some improvements as well in our attacking play."
Parisse took heart from Italy's June internationals in which they played away to Australia twice and New Zealand once, never once being humiliated as other Italian touring teams had been on previous June tours down under.
"There will be a lot of responsibility on us for the first match at the San Siro against the New Zealand All Blacks," he added.
"We will have the eyes of almost 80,000 people bearing down on us, we'll have to give everything against a team that will be far more in form than they were the last time we played on June 27 (a 27-6 defeat).
"It would be a big mistake to think we could beat them just because we managed to contain them in Christchurch.
"But we've worked very hard in training knowing that it's vital we respect our tactical play.
"We have to keep them as far away as possible from our tryline and repeat the good kicking game we produced in June."
A 32-man Italy squad are currently training in Rome until November 5 before South African coach Nick Mallet trims his squad down ahead of the test matches.
Comments
ForzAzzurri says...
May the Force be with us..............
Jokes a part once again we face a very hard challange , and honestly speaking our job will be to try not to get hammered by the ABs and the Boks, and try to beat Samoa for a little consolation and a wee bit of pride.
Posted 19:45 04th November 2009