Italy secured their first win over England with a historic Six Nations win on Saturday, putting aside early nerves and overcoming the pressure of anticipation to seize their chance at the Stadio Olimpico.
It was 33rd time lucky for Italy, who came into the match feeling they had the perfect chance to finally beat England, given their own recent performances and the visitors’ poor form.
Italy suffered defeats to Ireland and France before beating Scotland in their opening match, while England suffered back-to-back defeats to Scotland and Ireland, boosting Italian hopes of getting one over on England.
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“We entered the field with obvious nervousness, but we believed in it every second,” Italy captain Michele Lamarro told reporters.
“We knew we were in the right position to beat this England team and in the end we did it.
“Today we felt the expectations, we felt the weight of the past. We knew it was an opportunity we had to seize and we did it.”
It wasn’t a vintage Italy performance, and they appeared to run out of gas after falling eight points behind before making the most of their numerical advantage and closing out the win with a Leonardo Marin effort.
“There were moments in the game where we were a little off and they got their energy back a little bit,” Lamarro said.
“In those moments we looked into each other’s eyes and said we had to resist and earn every inch. We found the strength to work and hold on.”
Scrappy, but deserved
Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada’s first game was a 27-24 loss to England in Rome 2024. Two years later and it’s a completely different story and he admits it wasn’t a perfect performance, he felt his team deserved their success.
“These weren’t great games and they weren’t pretty, but I think we fully deserved this win,” Quesada told ITV.
“To win today against a fantastic England team is a big step in our development. We have to keep our feet on the ground and not get too excited – we have to keep going, but today is a big day for Italian rugby.”
Center Tommaso Menoncello, who scored Italy’s first try, passed the second to Marin, who was overwhelmed with his team’s achievement.
“I still can’t believe it. I’m very emotional. I dreamed about this moment all week, both the win and the player of the match award and it happened,” Menoncello told Sky Sport Italia.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard across these Six Nations to come here and make history and we’ve done it.”
(With France 24 Reuters)
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