Italrugby, 16-strong march to World Cup begins

Italrugby’s first pre-World Cup gathering has begun

The club season in the Northern Hemisphere, including Italy, is now consigned to the archives, and for Kieran Crowley’s national team it is time to think about the World Cup: as announced by FIR, the Italrugby technical commissioner has met again in Pergine Valsugana the 16 summoned players for the first pre-World Cup gathering, which will end on Friday, June 9.

The small number of players committed to the Trentino location is due to the recent commitments of several other elements in clubs, a factor that convinced the coach to avoid overloading them physically. The same logic will be used for the second gathering, scheduled for June 18-24, also in Pergine Valsugana, while for the third and fourth (July 7-13 in Pergine Valsugana, July 13-16 in Corvara) the group will be full.

These are the 16 summoned for the first gathering:

Pylons
Filippo ALONGI (Benetton Rugby, 1 cap)
Paolo BUONFIGLIO (Zebre Parma, rookie)
Matteo NOCERA (Zebre Parma, rookie)
Federico ZANI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)

Heelers
Luca BIGI (Zebre Parma, 46 caps)
Marco MANFREDI (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)

Second Lines.
David SISI (Zebre Parma, 27 caps)
Andrea ZAMBONIN (Zebre Parma, 2 caps)

Third Lines
Riccardo FAVRETTO (Benetton Rugby, 1 cap)
Toa HALAFIHI (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps)
Manuel ZULIANI (Benetton Rugby, 10 caps)

Opening Mids.
Giacomo DA RE (Benetton Rugby, 1 cap)

Centers
Enrico LUCCHIN (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)

Wings/Extremes
Pierre BRUNO (Zebre Parma, 12 caps)
Federico MORI (Bordeaux, 12 caps)
Edoardo PADOVANI (Benetton Rugby, 44 caps)

During the summer, Italy will play four tests in preparation for RWC 2023 against Scotland, Ireland, Romania and Japan. In the World Cup group, the Azzurri are placed against fearsome New Zealand and France (host country) and the more affordable, but not to be underestimated, Namibia and Uruguay.