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Italy's Chances In The World Cup

To be totally truthful, Italy are going to do absolute bugger all at this world cup apart from the very real possibility of them making the quarters because Scotland decide to be useless pricks. They may provide some strong showings in their pool matches with wins over Romania and Portugal and be at the receiving end of a flogging by New Zealand but it will all come down to the game against Scotland.

It really doesn't matter if they make the quarters because they certainly will not go any further.

I suppose this is what you can expect from such a low quality pool with one standout team.
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Sorry but yours is a really superficial analysis, you can't dismiss a team performance based on the fact they can't make it to the semifinal. Different teams have different objectives, this does not mean you don't have to respect the effort and energy they put into it. And like in other sports with time strong differences becomes smaller. Italy is already a hard team to beat in the sixth nations, in some years time they might become more competitive even for the big southern threes.
 
Italy are becoming a very good team with a superb pack with superb players oozing talent and form like the Bergamasco brothers and Bortolami. What virtually muzzles them is the total lack of a decent back line.

Italy suffer from a lack of decent fly half or centers who can do real damage like the BODs or Mortlocks of this world. Their pack can only get them so far and after that its downhill from there.

If Italy sort out the woes in their backs then Italy can close out games. At the moment they lose to sides like Australia and South Africa by about ten to fifteen points. With a decent back line they can actually start to push for wins against the bigger nations.
 
Italy are becoming a very good team with a superb pack with superb players oozing talent and form like the Bergamasco brothers and Bortolami. What virtually muzzles them is the total lack of a decent back line.

Italy suffer from a lack of decent fly half or centers who can do real damage like the BODs or Mortlocks of this world. Their pack can only get them so far and after that its downhill from there.

If Italy sort out the woes in their backs then Italy can close out games. At the moment they lose to sides like Australia and South Africa by about ten to fifteen points. With a decent back line they can actually start to push for wins against the bigger nations. [/b]



Italy need a creative fly-half or centre to pair with Bergamasco.

Then they need 1 or 2 wingers who have pace/power/both to finish off opportunities.

A top-notch goal kicker could be useful. And Pez needs to learn to tackle.
 
Italy need a creative fly-half or centre to pair with Bergamasco.

Then they need 1 or 2 wingers who have pace/power/both to finish off opportunities.

A top-notch goal kicker could be useful. And Pez needs to learn to tackle.

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So they pretty much need a backline on par with New Zealand? :p
 
Watch out for Stanojevic on the wing this WC... anyway against ABs Id take a 35-40 pt loss... I think we have lost this before we step on the pitch. The 3 after this are the big matches for us.
 
So they pretty much need a backline on par with New Zealand? :p
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Any backline would do for Italy but considering that chaps like Mortlock have made an absolute mockery of the New Zealand back line at times I'm sure that Graham Henry and the All Blacks can rest easy at night happy that Pierre Berbizier won't be mounting any covert kidnappings :bleh!:
 
<div class='quotemain'>
So they pretty much need a backline on par with New Zealand? :p
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Any backline would do for Italy but considering that chaps like Mortlock have made an absolute mockery of the New Zealand back line at times I'm sure that Graham Henry and the All Blacks can rest easy at night happy that Pierre Berbizier won't be mounting any covert kidnappings :bleh!:
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italy's backline has 1 quality player (Bergamasco). They have several players who work hard, but don't have the edge of pace or creativity. A quality playmaker could at least direct the work in the right direction. Then just a single Pacey winger could make all the difference against sides they are currently close with (i.e. Scotland)
 
We all know about Italy's pack. What I've been hoping for is an improvement in their midfield defence, and it looks from their Ireland performance that they've come up with something a hell of a lot better than they had in the 6N.

Bergomasco at 13 isn't my favourite player, but Troncon at 9 is great - he spent the last 5 minutes of the Wales victory a few months ago in a non-stop roar of triumph.
 
We all know about Italy's pack. What I've been hoping for is an improvement in their midfield defence, and it looks from their Ireland performance that they've come up with something a hell of a lot better than they had in the 6N.

Bergomasco at 13 isn't my favourite player, but Troncon at 9 is great - he spent the last 5 minutes of the Wales victory a few months ago in a non-stop roar of triumph.

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Troncon is great, and he suits Italy in that he's a real scrapper. He is also typical of Italian backs in that he doesn't create or finish try-scoring opportunities. He's a great player to make the most of what Italy have, but not a player to take their back-line (and hence the team) to the next level.
 
I reckon the Italians can make the quarters this year, they've proved (on more than one occasion) that they're on the same level as the Scots, and are capable of beating them. Ok, three early tries did give the Azzuri a head start this year (But it's not as if they've never beaten them before), but they played well for the rest of the game, even if Scotland did come back (which they were bound to do) in the second half. I agree that Italy really do need a more talented fly half to marshal the back line, Pez has improved, but he's nowhere near the same class as Diego Dominiguez. But still, he kicked well against Wales and Ireland (Scanavacca did alright against Scotland - but most of the kicks were in front/close to the posts) so he's good enough for now.
And people say Italy need pacey winger, well I say this; what about Kaine Robertson? He impressed me this 6 Nations, scoring two tries, first being an interception in that 6 minuite blitz v Scotland, and a class try against Wales, where he out sped Ian Gough (I still wonder where the hell Kevin Morgan had got to when Pez kicked the ball through) in a race to the ball that Pez had kicked over the defense.
I hope that Bortolussi will smack over a couple more monster drop goals during the WC as well, that'll help too.
Is Stanjovec any good? I can't say I've ever seen him play.
 
Italy backline is likely to feature Troncon at 9 (really hard worker and one of the best scrum half in the 6N, his last tournament), Pez at 10 (inconsistent, but on his day a good kicker)

Then in the midfield we have Canale and Bergamasco at centre... a decent duo, Bergamasco are real threat from this area with Stanojevic (I rate him) and Robertson or Masi on the wing. Bortolussi a very good kicker is at 15.
 
<div class='quotemain'>To me, they always look like a slightly less good version of Argentina.[/b]

No surprise, sometimes half of their team players are indeed argentinean ...

I think Italy will make it to quarter finals.
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All of them are Italians, legally, but originally born in other countries.
Actually, this is the list of the 7 Argentineans in the Italian team:
M Aguero,
P Canavosio,
S Dellape,
S Parisse
R Pez
G Canale
L Castrogiovanni

And after that, they have 3 New Zealanders, 2 S Africans, and one of each from England, Fiji, Canada and France (also the coach if French)
 
All of them are Italians, legally, but originally born in other countries.[/b]

If they weren't legally italian they wouldn't be allowed to play for the national team in the first place ...
 
<div class='quotemain'>All of them are Italians, legally, but originally born in other countries.[/b]

If they weren't legally italian they wouldn't be allowed to play for the national team in the first place ...
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That was exactly my point...
 
That was exactly my point...[/b]

There's no point at all, taking into account the agreements made between Argentina and Italy regarding dual citizenship all those players are argentinean (and italian).
 
<div class='quotemain'>That was exactly my point...[/b]

There's no point at all, taking into account the agreements made between Argentina and Italy regarding dual citizenship all those players are argentinean (and italian).
[/b][/quote]

Well, this is not something about "agreements between Italy and Argentina". This is about Itlaian law that considers Italians to people 2 (sometimes 3) generations after the italian-born left Italy. This is for all of the countries, and this is why they have so players born at so many different countries.

That was just a coment, I am not complaining against nothing at all.
Bon chance mon amie
 
Well, this is not something about "agreements between Italy and Argentina". This is about Itlaian law that considers Italians to people 2 (sometimes 3) generations after the italian-born left Italy. This is for all of the countries, and this is why they have so players born at so many different countries.[/b]

I will disagree again, Italian law isn't alone in the world and rule over everything, our law in this case is very important too and it's pretty much based in the opposite concept for obvious reasons (Argentina being a country composed by immigrants grant citizenship on soil and italian law - as you already mentioned - on the other hand is based on blood - this is in process of reform anyway -). Without the mentioned agreements they would need to give up their argentinean citizenship to became italians or the other way around. This has happened before to a lot of people who had inmigranted to Argentina and since lost their citizenship (including italians and spanish, specially the ones that worked in the government like teachers for example).

That was just a coment, I am not complaining against nothing at all.
Bon chance mon amie
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No problem. De cualquier manera soy argentino :p
 
This has happened before to a lot of people who had inmigranted to Argentina and since lost their citizenship (including italians and spanish, specially the ones that worked in the government like teachers for example).

That happend to my italian granfather

No problem. De cualquier manera soy argentino :p
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y entonces? que hace esa banderita francesa en tu identificador? vamos chamigo, cambia eso ya!
Bon courage pour demain. Vas a ver el partido? (supongo que estas en francia)
 
That happend to my italian granfather[/b]

Then you see why the agreements are imporant ;)

y entonces? que hace esa banderita francesa en tu identificador? vamos chamigo, cambia eso ya![/b]

No es francesa che, es de Luxemburgo (donde vivo).

Bon courage pour demain. Vas a ver el partido? (supongo que estas en francia)[/b]

El partido lo voy a ver por TF1 que lo tengo en el cable, no veo la hora de que arranque ...
 

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