Gonzalo Quesada sets three goals for Six Nations 2026

The Men’s Six Nations 2026 lifted the veil of its 27th edition at Edinburgh Castle where technical commissioners and captains gathered, accompanied by the wailing of bagpipes, for the worldwide launch of the world’s oldest and most prestigious rugby tournament. For Italy, coach Gonzalo Quesada and Michele Lamaro, in his fifth season as captain of the Azzurri, who will make their debut on Feb. 7 at Rome’s Olympic Stadium precisely against Scotland, in one of the great Six Nations classics.

Luca Giorgetti

After the sunrise shots in the setting of one of Britain’s oldest fortresses, together with colleagues from the other five national teams led by Olympic champion and captain of defending champion France Antoine Dupont, Quesada and Lamaro made a few statements to the media present. “Our goal for this tournament that is about to begin is to continue to increase the consistency of our performance – said the Italrugby technical commissioner -, keeping our ability to be competitive” unchanged throughout the five matches.

“We come from a good November, with wins over Australia and Chile and two quality performances against the Wallabies and Springboks– added the coach of the men&#8217s national rugby team -. We have three goals, and none of them are negotiable, to measure the quality of our performance: a very solid achievement in defense to put pressure on and in attack to launch our game, a defense that expresses the heart, passion and spirit of Italian rugby whenever we do not have possession, an exciting attack and offensive game that testifies to the growth path of this team”.

The Argentine coach and captain Michele Lamaro returned to Verona in the evening to join the national team.

From Tuesday, they will be working with the rest of the group to begin preparation for the opening challenge against Gregor Townsend”; highlanders.

In the 2025 edition of the Tournament, Italy finished in fifth place, winning one game (22-15 at home against Wales) and losing the other four: 31-19 in Scotland, 73-24 in Rome against France, 47-24 at Twickenham against England and 22-17 at home against Ireland, a match in which the Azzurri cornered the national team that won the previous edition.