Juan Ignacio Brex admits the ‘truth’ about Italy’s ‘really frustrating’ defensive woes and opens up on ‘humble’ relationship with Tommaso Menoncello
Ignacio Brex in action for Italy in the 2025 Six Nations
Italy centre Juan Ignacio Brex has called for his side to improve their defensive exploits after yet another heavy defeat in the 2025 Six Nations.
The Azzurri currently sit fifth in the Championship table heading into the final round, and will end their campaign at home to Ireland on Saturday.
Brex calls on Italy to improve defensive output
While Italy have earned high praise for their attacking intent this Championship, their defence has let them down. So far, Gonzalo Quesada’s side have conceded a whopping 166 points – the most of any team – of which 120 have come in their previous two Tests, against France (73) and England (47).
On top of this, Italy missed 36 tackles in their 47-24 defeat to England on Sunday, 34 against France, 20 against Wales and 30 against Scotland – an average of 30 a game.
But, speaking exclusively to Planet Rugby following his side’s defeat at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, Brex highlighted his belief that his side need to focus on this area if they want to make the most of their attacking improvements.
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“We need to focus more on the defence,” he said. “In the past two games, we’ve conceded 120 points. It’s not nice to talk about but it’s the truth at the moment.”
He added: “We need to work on our defence and our physicality.”
This issue came to the fore in the opening exchanges of the second-half against England on Sunday. At half-time, Italy only trailed 21-17, but by the 53rd minute found themselves 35-17 down thanks to three tries from Marcus Smith, Tom Curry and Ollie Sleightholme.
“We probably lost the game in the first 10 minutes of the second-half and that was really frustrating,” Brex continued. “I think we were in the game and I had a feeling we could do it, but after that 10 minutes I was like ‘oh’.
“They took the momentum well, they put us under a lot of pressure. England are a really good team so it’s not easy to turn it around when they got momentum.
“It wasn’t that they scored easy tries, but the way we defended made it easy for them to score, so we needed more effort in that area.”
But, whilst the rest of his side struggled in defence, Brex yet again stood out in this area. The Benetton man made nine tackles across his 80 minute shift, including two dominant tackles – which came via his customary bolt out of the line.
“I do it when the team is balanced out on defence,” he explained. “When you have the people inside you, you can shoot out and put them under pressure, but when you don’t you have to hold your structure. That was the problem for us today when they scored, we couldn’t put them under pressure and they killed us.”
He added: “When I know I have this situation and the possibility (to shoot out) I love to go out and take the people over the advantage line.”
Brexoncello
Despite the defensive issues, attack has been a real strong point for the Azzurri this Championship and the deadly duo of Tommaso Menoncello and Brex have once again been at the beating heart of this.
The pair, now affectionately known as ‘Brexoncello’ have scored two tries apiece in Italy’s four outings thus far and have both notched more than 100 metres ball-in-hand as well (Brex 106 and Menoncello 136).
“Obviously it’s really nice to play with Tommy,” Brex told Planet Rugby. “This is the third year we’ve played together now, so we have that feeling where he knows me and I know him. We feel really good together, but we can improve even more if we want to be the best in the world. We feel really good together.”
A big part of their partnership is actually their fluidity. Rather than just sticking to their numbered position (with Menoncello wearing 12 and Brex wearing 13), the Benetton and Italian duo often swap around throughout, which Brex put down to their ‘humble’ mindset and how they recognise each other’s strength.
“We swap every time, it just depends on the plays that we do. I know my limits and he knows his limits, we’re humble on this. I can go ‘Tommy you’re better at this thing’ and he can say ‘Nacho you’re better at this other thing’,” he said.
“With the time we have together, we can understand what we can do better so we swap all the time. It all just depends.”
