Rassie Erasmus doubles down on Italy praise and his ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ warning to England
Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus hails Italy ahead of Six Nations match against England.
Rassie Erasmus has issued England with a Six Nations warning they dare not ignore ahead of Saturday’s Italian job in Rome.
Erasmus, boss of world champions South Africa, raised eyebrows in November when tipping perennial also-rans Italy to finish second or third in this championship.
Not for nothing is he rated the smartest coach in world rugby. Having beaten Scotland and given Ireland a mighty fright in Dublin, the Azzurri sit level on points with England and fancying their chances of an historic first ever win.
Gonzalo Quesada praise
Erasmus rates Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada as one of the best in the business and reckons combining his rugby IQ with scrum power, discipline and line-breaking threat makes the boys in blue a serious threat to Steve Borthwick’s beleaguered team.
“We don’t know how much tighter that England team might have become after those two losses,” Erasmus told Planet Rugby. “But Italy are in with a chance and that won’t frighten them.
“I’ve always found that that fuels them. The moment they feel they really have a chance that actually makes them more dangerous.
“For me there’s a competitiveness about them, very in your face. They don’t apologise for having line speed. They believe in what they’re doing.
“Their coach is a great coach. The whole world has a lot of respect for him. And if every guy is a fit they really have a quality group.”
Italy welcomed back Ange Capuozzo last week and for the first time since the opening weekend will have Juan Ignacio Brex alongside Tommaso Menoncello in midfield against England.
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Asked if he would be surprised if Italy beat England for the first time in 32 attempts, Erasmus paused for a moment.
“No,” he said, “but please don’t make the headline ‘I won’t be surprised if Italy beat England’, because when we [South Africa] go into a game against Italy, we think we can lose the game if we’re not at our best.
“We are fortunate we might have a hell of a lot of rugby players, so if we lose two or three or four we might still be okay in that Test match.
“But when you strike an Italy team and they’ve got all their players available and really believe they can win, I wouldn’t be surprised if they win. I’ve felt they could have beaten us before.”
Erasmus says he is loving the unpredictability of a tournament which has seen France dominate but Italy, Ireland and Scotland beat opponents they were not expected to.
“This is what people want,” he said. “Unexpectedness, not knowing who’s winning, underdogs beating major dogs and so on. I think this Six Nations is a great standard.”
Narrow favourites
Despite back-to-back defeats, England are favourites to snap their losing streak at Stadio Olimpico. But bookmakers only give them a seven-point edge, far tighter than usual.
“Italy over the last 20/25 years have gone from a side feared in the set-piece and nowhere else, now they’ve got flow, tempo, strike runners,” World Cup winner Will Greenwood told Sky Sports News last week.
“They are an outstanding team full of confidence. They will know England will be a little jittery, a little nervous and they’ll look to take advantage in the first 10/15 minutes, expose the frailties.
“And if they do that’s a dark place for England to dig themselves out.”
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