Italy coach Jacques Brunel insisted his side have plenty to do if they are to become a true force to be reckoned with despite finishing their Six Nations campaign on a high with an historic win over Ireland.
Ireland took the road to Rome hoping to finish a torrid campaign with a win at the Olympic Stadium, but Declan Kidney's injury-hit squad succumbed 22-15 with Italy scoring the only try.
Italy had shown the same signs of marked improvement in a determined first outing last month when they secured a deserved 23-18 win at home to France.
Subsequent losses to England, Scotland and Wales tempered that joy and threatened to dump the Azzurri among the wooden spoon candidates.
However a packed-out crowd of around 70,000 witnessed a determined Italy punish an ill-disciplined Ireland side which has now failed to score a try in four Six Nations outings.
Italy finished fourth on the table, one place ahead of Ireland and two ahead of France, having won twice in the tournament for only the second time.
While it rubber-stamped the progress Italy had shown since producing strong performances against the All Blacks and Wallabies in the November Tests, Brunel believes they are far from the finished product.
"I always said I'd wait until the Ireland game to judge our performance, but today's result leaves me with two totally different ideas," he said.
"On the one hand, there's a consistency since our matches against the All Blacks and through to France, England and Ireland.
"We played well against all those teams, but we were beaten in Scotland (34-10) and had a poor match against Wales (26-9).
"We still don't have that capacity to be always consistent at this level. But our character, and the performances we produced against all these teams shows that we're on the right road."
Comments
j615 says...
I think the success of Zebre is key to the progression of Italy. If they can become more competitive and bring through more decent players then Italy's strength and depth will improve (I appreciate that Orquera, Geldenhehys and Vendetti are all player for Zebre and played well in the 6N). At the moment the majority of Zebre players are Italian fringe players. The success of Treviso has massively boosted Italy these players are used to winning (especially at home) and playing against decent players week in week out. I hope Zebre manage to stay afloat unlike Aironi. I think it would be good if Zebre played some of their matches around other parts of the country to boost support and get some crowds in like Saracens do.
Posted 23:58 18th March 2013
Matematico says...
Great moment! But we have to stay humble because our movement is absolutely not comparable to the others 5 nations... For istance we have only 1 pro-team: Benetton Treviso and it can't be enough to develop new talents...
Posted 01:17 18th March 2013
Lucasrg says...
Now Italy has plenty of time this summer in South Africa and November tests to try youngsters and keep this good game plan. We have few interesting young player and we will see Buso, if fit, lot more at 10 as he was promised by JB before the 6N.
Posted 13:34 17th March 2013
Iyhel says...
How do you fail to score a try a week before when drawing 13 all?
And three weeks ago losing with 8 points on the board?
As far as I know, these ain't multiples of 3...
Posted 12:32 17th March 2013