Six Nations, Italy: Nacho Brex doesn’t hide excitement for first as captain

Nacho Brex ready to lead the Azzurri on the field

On the eve of Italy-Ireland, the match that will conclude the path of both at the Six Nations 2025, the Azzurri are presented as possible outsiders, although success against the Clover national team has been lacking since as far back as 2013 (22-15 at the Olympic Stadium, the same venue of Saturday’s match). Leading the Azzurri, for the first time as captain, will be Juan Ignacio 'Nacho' Brex, among the most highly regarded three-quarterbacks in Europe.

"It will be"a great thrill to be captain in a Six Nations match, at the’Olimpico and in the last match of the tournament – said the Azzurri center, born in Argentina but in Italy since 2015 -. I will tryò to show calmness; to the team: my task è also to transmit calmness and energy".

The goal of Brex and his teammates è to climb back up the slope after two ugly defeats against France and England, which showed heavy fragility; especially in physical tightness after halftime: "We have suffered a lot in these last two games,” confirmed the Azzurri, “-both for us and for the public, it è never feels good to lose".

" I think the problems in defense are a mix of individual attitude and collective organization. We are not a team that backs down, this never. This week we have been working on both individual and collective defensive aspects. To compete with Ireland we have to get the defense right and have consistency in our work, because they are capable of doing even 50 phases if needed. In attack we have to be very precise".

Italy has met Ireland 37 times in its history with the balance largely in favor of the men in green, which speaks of 33 Irish wins and 4 Azzurri: in 2013 the only success at Six Nations level, the other victories came in 1995 (22-12 in Treviso) and 1997 (37-29 in Dublin and 37-22 in Bologna).