Wounded Italians eye upset
ITALY’S bid to produce the biggest upset in rugby league history against the Kangaroos will be fuelled by a diet of hope, optimism and antibiotics.
Up to a dozen Italian players, including captain Nathan Brown, will take their place against Australia having been forced to seek hospital treatment for infections resulting from playing on a synthetic pitch in Newcastle in their opening two games.
Brown was left in such a bad state he could barely walk for five days after grazes suffered in Italy’s first game against Scotland became infected.
But now comes the biggest test – a meeting with the Kangaroos in St Helens on Sunday morning (AEST).
“Best in the world – we have the mentality of doing the jersey proud, playing for 80 minutes, playing for each other and see what happens,” Brown said.
“We just want everyone to have a crack. You don’t go into any game wanting to lose. We just want to have a crack and have a go for each other.”
Brown will play with his knee heavily strapped as he takes care to avoid inflaming his wounds.
“I didn’t really feel it after the game until the following day,” he said.
“I couldn’t walk to be honest. For five days it was a bit of a weird situation. I went to the hospital here and got on antibiotics.
“It was pretty annoying. Then I had to play on it again last week. I was limping around. I couldn’t really bend my knee because it was right on my knee.
“Everything was swollen and tightened up.”
The sides have only met twice in their history – the last time was more than 40 years ago in a pair of Tests played in Italy and won comprehensively by Australia.