Have Italy Actually Improved This Six Nations?

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Italy have fallen agonizingly short of their best ever six nations campaign

by losing to Wales in Cardiff. The Adiri had never won three games in a single six nations tournament

before, and will be ruined this missed opportunity. It is a cruel end to what has been one of the best

seasons in Italian rugby history. In this video, we will take a deep dive into the numbers behind

Italy's six nations campaign. We will outline the reasons for their vastly improved performance

show where they still have room to improve, and that's the question is the new Italy

really here to stay. But before diving into the numbers, it's important to remember where Italy

were just a few seasons ago. In 2021, they had their worst ever six nations campaign. They lost

every single game by an average margin of 37 points. And this was what led to certain pundits

calling for Italy to be replaced in the six nations by Georgia. And it's safe to say those

calls have fallen very silent. To quantify the scale of Italy's improvement, let's compare

this year's campaign to where they were two seasons ago. 2024 was current coach Gonzalo Casada's

first season in charge of Italy, and they also had the same home and away fixtures, making the

comparison the most reliable. Now, 2024 was already Italy's best ever six nations with two wins

and a draw. But if we look into the stats, we see that 2026 was a clear step better. As a crude

measure, the six nations website lists 31 metrics measuring team performance. In 2024, Italy

were bottom of 14 of these metrics. In 2026, they were bottom of just six. Meanwhile, that average

losing margin that was 37 points has now been cut down to just six. Or to put it another way,

the margin of defeat has gone from just over five scores to just under one in five seasons.

That is a phenomenal turnaround. So obviously a lot of stats that were bad to tell you have changed

a bit since that Wales defeats, but for me, they still give quite a lot of insight into the changes

that Italy have made and the improvements that they have made that game aside. So overall,

I hope you'll still find them quite interesting. Now, unsurprisingly, the biggest reason for that

margin reducing so dramatically is a vastly improved defense. Since 2021, Italy have not a massive

26 points per game off their points conceded, Tally. After four rounds of the 2026 championship,

Italy's average points conceded was just 21.5. That's the lowest it has ever been for Italy

in this championship. Their historic first ever win against England was their first win against

the team other than Scotland or Wales since 2013. None other than double world cup winning

springboard coach Razia Rasmus was full of praise for Italy's defence. He said, quote,

for me, there is a competitiveness about them, very in your face. They don't apologise for having

line speed and they believe in what they're doing. A big reason for that defensive improvement is

the physicality Italy are now able to bring to the game. Under Cassader, Italy have ranked in the

top three for dominant tackles in each of the last three six nations. According to Opta,

Lorenzo Canoni has been their best individual defensive player with an average of 16 tackles per 80

and a dominant topping 12 dominant hits after four rounds. Meanwhile, Manuel Zurilani has continued

his excellent URC form that he's been showing for betterton with six rock turnovers one. That

physicality has been replicated at the set piece where Italy have laid claim to having the best

scrum in the six nations. Both France and Ireland found themselves being undone by the Italian

scrum and whilst they still went on to win the games, the scrum was a major reason why Italy managed

to keep the scoreboard under control. Now, earlier on in the six nations, I spoke to Italian

Robiforms Mike Petreta and he told me that Italian scrum dominance is not something that surprised

him. So, for me, that's the thing that I was most confident on coming into the game. I think

Ferrari has been very strong in URC. In fact, I think if you look back to last year under Bordolami,

I think Benetan had one of the strongest scrum. Spagnolo, we know what he can do as an impact

player off the bench. He's so solid in the scrum as well. Nicar did doing really well in the top

14 as well. I was probably least concerned about that because we also had the best part of

three tests against the South Africans last year to measure where we were. Actually, I think

by the last game we were putting them under pressure at the scrum. But perhaps more crucially,

Italy are not only winning more lineouts than they used to, but they're also stealing more

lineouts than they used to. And of course, that is a very effective way of stopping the opposition

from scoring. Teams that don't have the ball don't tend to score. Earlier this year, former

Italian head coach Franco Smith explains to Megafoon rugby why set peace pressure was so vital to

defense. Like though the boys back in the day, the opposition will stop kicking the ball to touch

if you start stopping them five yards out or you start competing, Benetan. Once you start winning

the scrum, we know these and you instead of giving them away, it won't necessarily score you

tries, but it will allow the position not to score tries. Yeah, it's again, and they get a lot of

turnover ball through the back row that they've picked this week and that allows them to either

get more position, get more attack platforms that will obviously as an influence on the scoreboard

pressure. Hey, so since I recorded that, I've actually dug a bit deeper into Italy's lineout

stats and they're not quite as impressive as I initially thought. So once they do have a joint

top five lineout stolen, it turns out four of those came in the opening match against Scotland,

and they've only stolen one since. And while they do have the most lineout throws in the six

nations so far, they also have the most lineout losses with 12. And what's even more concerning is

out of those 12 losses, only four were actually stolen by the opposition. The other eight were just

skill errors. Anyway, if you're enjoying this video so far, please consider subscribing to this

YouTube channel and let me know in the comments down below what you think of the analysis so far,

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and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. But despite Italy's obvious improvements,

there is still one area of the game where they are lagging behind the rest. And that is in the attack.

Since bonus points were introduced into the Six Nations back in 2017,

Italy have never registered at four tri bonus points. They may have brought that average

points conceded down, but it is still higher than their average point scored, meaning on balance,

they should still lose most games that they play. Even in 2026, after four rounds,

Italy ranked bottom for Tri's scored. The Six Nations has even seen a regression in terms of

points scoring. Their average of 15.5 points per game is the lowest it has been since 2022.

And they have averaged less than two tri scored per game in every season since 2019.

And this is despite the fact that in rugby generally, tri scoring is higher than it has ever

been before. In fact, Italy actually scored more tri's under Connoir O'Shea than they currently do

under Gonzalo Casader. I mean, let's just look at some of the tri's Italy have scored

this Six Nations. Their only try against France came from Tom Aramus trying to play out from behind

his own tri line. Their two tries against England came from Thomas Manicelo individual brilliance,

and their only try against Ireland was a moral try. And this isn't just a Six Nations problem either.

Since the 2024 November International's, they have been held to fewer than 20 points in half

of their test matches. This graph compares the average points per 22 entry for all tier one

nations across 2025. We see that Italy are well below average for both 22 entries and point scored

when they get there. In the Six Nations this year, Italy averaged fewer than one point per entry

against both Ireland and France. And when the average points per entry is more than two to get

less than one is a very poor return. And a symptom of this poor attack is that they have become

overly reliant on kicking threes. In the first four rounds of the Six Nations, Italy kicked

eight penalty goals. Table-topping France kicked one. Franco Smith told Megaphone rugby how

improving the attack was key to Italy's continued development. And one just started winning the

collisions from a tackle perspective. You give yourself a better chance to create scoreboard pressure

if you have the ability to score tries through kicking in space behind, moving them all about,

you know, and with some very good carriers. So now when a team's try scoring is so limited,

we do unfortunately have to question the halfbacks. Scrum Half has been openly acknowledged as a

position of weakness for Italy over the past few seasons. Alessandro Fusco has performed well

in the jersey in 2026, but it doesn't seem like the fans really see him as a long-term solution.

For me, hands down, and I've been very consistent with this even when, frankly, there was a lot of

mean people out there talking about Vani. I think Vani has that quality of past that I don't think

any of our Scrum Halfs have. So each one has their own USP. Ironically, Fusco is normally like

his physicality, and he played 12 up until, sort of, under 18s, where Paul Griffin, Ironically,

converted him to play 9. Then you have, you know, Alessandro Garbisi, who played 10, and he converted

to 9. So again, you know, they each have like their own ability, might in page Rello, very sort of

typical French fliers, sort of sniping 9. But yeah, for me, I think Vani is just the most rounded.

And then there is Fly Half Palo Garbisi. Now, Garbisi burst onto the scene at a very young age,

but, despite getting rave reviews from some pundits, the number suggests that he is not bringing

much to the table from an attacking point of view. In the first four rounds, he played every single

minute virtually, but did not register a single tri-envolvement. The only player to hold that

unfortunate statistic. This table shows how Garbisi is lagging behind many of his six nations rivals

when he comes to key attacking metrics. And things aren't going much better for him at club

level either. His current team, Toulon, replaced Garbisi mid-season for Argentinian Fly Half, Thomas

Albinos, and the rumours are that he will be released by the top 14 side at the end of the current

season. However, his former coach continues to back in. Garbisi played 10 games for Italy,

whilst I was coaching, and by then he didn't play more than five for Minneton. He played more,

these matches, and he's played for Minneton by the Dama lift, Scott and Archbiterli back in the

day. So, yes, good to see them now, you know, gaping 50th gap on really proud. Obviously, back to

In, it was, it was a long time vision. Patricia agrees that Garbisi is the right man to wear that

Italian number 10 shirts. In Italy, he has a lot more freedom to play as he wants to play.

Be able to fully express himself as a player, and that's why I was getting quite excited about

some rumours for us. What, with Albinos getting back to TV's or where he was running the show

before he went to Montpellier, and obviously subsequently won the top 14. He's an interesting player,

obviously. He has moments of brilliance, and yeah, I think it just needs more game time,

like for us to see him at the levels we've seen him in France. He just needs more game time,

and he needs to sort of be given the keys to the car as it were.

There are also questions over who should be Italy's fallback, with the jersey having been passed

around somewhat over the last few seasons. Now, many people think that it should be Ange

Kapowatso, but I personally don't agree with that. If you watch him in the top 14 to lose

have firmly decided that he is a winger, and he is flourishing in that position.

I actually made a full video on Ange Kapowatso last year, and you can watch it by clicking the

join button down below the video and subscribing to channel membership. If you do that, not only

will you be able to see that video, but you will also get access to weekly bonus content.

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With a second successful Six Nations campaign in three seasons, the question becomes whether or

not Italy can sustain this level of performance. Now, countries to what some people might have

you believe Italy have actually shown similar levels of improvement in the past, only to lose it

in dramatic fashion. Back in 2013, they beat both Ireland and France in the same tournament,

and had defensive statistics that were very similar to what we've seen this year. However,

they followed that up with a run of just one victory in eight seasons, culminating in their

year in 2021. And even since then, there have been false dawns. The Italian showed glimpses of

progress under Karen Crowley between 2021 and 2023, only for them to rock up at the World Cup and

get humiliated by 90 points against New Zealand. Thankfully, though, there are signs that this time

around the progress can be sustained. Italy's under 20s have maintained a level of competitiveness

for several seasons, and there is now 18 above that to further continue the development of the

players. Meanwhile, the URC teams of Benetan and Zebra are significantly stronger than they were

10 years ago. I am always optimistic about Zebra doing, you know, more and better, and I think

Bruneu, or CC, and all of the coaches there are brilliant. There's like a clear pathway about how

much Kisada is influencing, you know, how they want to play in the structures and how players

are getting developed and who's getting game time. Benetan need to find a coach, frankly.

Ironically, I'm more concerned about Benetan than I'm at Zebra at the moment. I would love to see

them invest a lot more money in coaching and a lot less money in players if I'm being really

candid. The big thing is you need the club coaches who has access to the players every

day to make sure, you know, that they develop the player and the players are improved,

understanding it's impossible and I haven't tried that before. It's really tough to coach basic

structural components in a taste match week when there's so many other details that end

queasy ofness that must be created that still need to be done in a taste match week.

And it seems that someone at Benetan has been listening. A couple of weeks ago, they announced

the appointment of former Wales Six Nations coach Wayne Pivak. Now Pivak's pedigree at club

level is unquestioned, having taken the scarlet to the Pro 12 title in 2017. And in the process,

he built the core of the Wales team that won the Six Nations Grand Slam and got to a World Cup semi-final

in 2019. If Pivak can rebuild Benetan's squad and Zebra can continue to give opportunities

to young players, then the foundations for Italy's success will be much more stable and have a far

better chance at longevity. One thing for sure, their former coach is very bullish about their

future prospects. I was in the privileged position to see that the change over or lack of change

over then and then COVID happened and I had to introduce I think 14 or 1521 players before the

during the Six Nations until 2021. So to see those boys now accumulating all the gaps and

you know, a lot of them around the forties and I predict that Scotland, oh excuse me, Italy will

have the most gap players in the 2031 World Cup and most of them would have played three World

Gups. So I hope you found this video if nothing else thought-provoking. If you did, please leave

those thoughts in the comments section down below. Subscribe if you haven't already, enjoy your rugby

and I hope that everybody's team wins. Cheers. When amazing as you're standard, you craft experiences

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