Rugby Union - Six Nations Championship - Italy v Wales - Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy - February 8, 2025 Italy's Michele Lamaro during the warm up before the match REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Jan 26 (Reuters) - Italy managed to avoid the wooden spoon in the last two editions of the Six Nations Championship but at the 2026 tournament launch on Monday, head coach Gonzalo Quesada and captain Michele Lamaro spoke about the need for consistency.
The Italians, long used to finishing bottom of the standings, have begun to turn things around of late. In 2024, Italy had their best ever tournament, beating Scotland and Wales and drawing with France.
Italy also defeated the Welsh last year, but followed that up with a 73-24 thumping at the hands of the French in Rome and were unable to build on the success of the previous year.
"We are super happy and proud of the performances of the players, because I think that's one of the main reasons why we have a couple of sellouts in Italy, which is not that common," Quesada said.
"We need to make sure we do our best to compete in every game against every team, not like last year when we competed in some games and some we were a bit behind, so really motivated for that."
Italy ran England close two years ago, losing 27-24, but the following weekend they suffered a whitewash in Dublin, going down 36-0 to Ireland.
"I think that has been a little bit of what we missed a couple of times in the last couple of years. Consistency of performance is something we were really looking forward to," Lamaro said.
"We've seen when we're at our best, we can actually compete against anyone. But at the same time, to be able to be at our best every single time, you have to go a step further.
"So that's one of our main objectives, especially for the Six Nations campaign, but even for the bigger picture for our team, generally.
"We want to get to that consistency part where we can really step onto the pitch and know that we are going to face a big challenge with our strength every single time."
Italy begin with a home match against Scotland on February 7.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
