Can Crowley revive Italy’s serial losers?
Kieran Crowley will become the eighth Italy coach to undertake a Six Nations campaign in the coming weeks and as his squad gather in Verona tonight for their pre-tournament camp it seems a good idea to touch base with the experienced Kiwi.
Crowley was a fine All Black full-back with 19 Test starts, John Gallagher’s understudy at RWC1987 and a starter four years later in their semi-final defeat against Australia. A varied coaching career has seen him claim a Junior World Cup with New Zealand in 2007, grapple against the odds with Canada, take on the big provincial teams in New Zealand with Taranaki and putting Benetton on a sounder footing.
He’s been around the block and knows his stuff, although you could say the same about Conor O’Shea and Franco Smith and neither of that duo managed a single Six Nations win during their tenures.
With 23 Benetton players in his Italy squad, almost all of whom he has also coached at club level, I assumed that was one of the very few advantages Italy have as they continue their David v Goliath fight but Crowley is not so sure.
“If anything it works the other way. There is, as everybody acknowledges, a big difference between club and Test rugby and you must change, adapt and improve, Benetton have become a solid competitive URC team and we enjoyed a fine run in the Rainbow Cup the other season when we took the silverware, but that will not be sufficient at Test level.
“The club does provide the rump of our squad, many of our best players, but they all have to reset and challenge themselves when they enter the Test arena. Familiarization with a common Benetton game plan doesn’t count for that much. To start winning Six Nations games we have to find the Italian way, the Italy game plan and that will involve the Benetton players adapting and
of course also working in harmony with the other squad members from the other clubs.
“There is a huge amount of work to do and limited time plus we lose a handful of important players not playing in Italy back to their clubs after three days during our first week so that’s a challenge as well, especially when you open up with three straight games against arguably the form teams in world rugby – France, England and Ireland.”
He has a point. Familiarity must never be allowed to breed contempt. Very few consistently successful Test teams have ever been based on massive contingents from the one club. There are a few exceptions. Auckland circa 1986-89 underpinned a great All Black team and Warren Gatland leaned heavily on Neath when he took over at Wales in 2008 and claimed a surprise Grand Slam.
Generally, though, it can be tricky. Take the Pumas relationship with the Jaguares. Very little of the Pumas brilliance
at RWC2015 transferred back to the Jaguares when virtually all those players remastered as a Super Rugby team a few months later. And then a few years later, just as the Jaguares started to light things up, the same players went right off the boil for Argentina.
Which is why the selection of Michele Lamaro as Italian captain is important and possibly instructive even though, with just seven caps to his name, Lamaro’s nomination as captain last autumn caught some by surprise.
His job is arguably the toughest in all rugby. Italy are massive underdogs every Six Nations game they ever play, the pressure for a win builds with every match but the likelihood of such a triumph recedes as the defeats clock up. Talk about groundhog day. As if we need reminding, Murrayfield 2015 is the last time Italy tasted victory in the Championship. That must be crushing to your confidence.
The trouble is Italy dine only
at the top table and signs of progress are obscured and opinions become warped. As big a supporter of Georgian rugby as I am and all the incredible effort the Lelos are making to break into the top flight, I still reckon that if Italy played Georgia ten times they would win eight of those contests. Italy aren’t rubbish as some claim – they are the ultimate awkward gauche inbetweeners.
Which brings us to Lamaro who to these eyes is a terrific flanker, an 80-minute tackling machine who leads by example. I first clocked him a few years back when he was playing for Italy U20 and Benetton as a young permit player from Petraca and even when they were taking a beating his head never went down. He kept tackling and competing. That used to be hard-wired into the better Italy teams but has been sorely missing in recent years.
He’s a bit different from the Italian stereotype. He’s not from the Italian rugby heartland of the north, he is the proud son of Rome and the sunkissed south. His dad Gianluca was an Olympic yachtsman who skippered the Italians Soling boat at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and Michele was born almost within shouting distance of the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
He learned his rugby with Lazio 1927 who used to compete in the European Cups in their ‘glory’ years and which the national side still frequent. Their small ground is right under a bridge on the Via de Foro Italico on the city outskirts. You may well have driven past it on international weekends without knowing.
He now plays for Benetton because if you want to be a full time professional in Italy you play for either Benetton or, to a lesser extent, Zebre. But he is the product of neither. He has no baggage in that respect, he would seem like a good man to oversee adaptation and change on the field.
Crowley adds: “Michele captained every Italy side he played for right up through the age groups so I knew of his captaincy qualities and I saw them again the moment he joined us at Benetton. With the usual caveats of staying injury free and maintaining form, I see him as a long term appointment, one of the important pillars we need to put in place as we look for Italy to kick on and improve.”
Lamaro and Crowley enjoyed a mixed autumn. There was real dog and spirit – some old school Italian physicality – in defeat against New Zealand when they also suffered from a ludicrously disallowed try at an important time.
But then came a sub-par performance seven days later against a jaded Pumas team. Italy could have won that day but had simply forgotten how to seize victory. And finally they finished off with a workmanlike but uninspiring win over a dogged Uruguay side.
The critics carped it was ‘only’ Uruguay but it was at least a win for a side that has forgotten what victory tastes like. A ‘fast food’ win before returning to top table again.