Italian captain and legend Sergio Parisse is not under any illusions of who are the favourites to progress from his team’s group at the Rugby World Cup but he is also confident the Azzurri can cause an upset in Japan.
Italy have been handed a horrific draw at the tournament having been potted with heavy-weights New Zealand and South Africa as well as Canada and Namibia in Pool B.
Parisse knows that the southern hemisphere giants are favourites to progress from the group, but he is optimistic that the Italians can get a big result against one of the big sides.
“We aren’t favourites. We’re realistic about that, we know there’s a big chance that South Africa and New Zealand will get through. But we’re working to make something big and to achieve something big you must do something that you’ve never done before,” he said.
The Italians have never reached the quarter-finals of the tournament and it would be incredible if they were to make this their first time to do so.
However, the 35-year-old has already led an Italian side to victory over the Springboks in his career and doesn’t think it’s beyond his team to repeat that feat in Japan.
“We are doing massive work in every single sector of our game. Physically, in our preparation for the games, not just on fitness and rugby but in other little things like nutrition, how we sleep, breathing, everything. We are trying to do everything we can to give ourselves every chance to improve. We want to arrive at that game against South Africa saying we’ve done everything we can to make it happen and win the game. Maybe we’ll win, maybe not, but in terms of how we prepare we want to finish the World Cup with no regrets,” he added.
Italy had a mixed bag of results in their warm-up games for the tournament with losses to Ireland, England and France, as well as a massive win over Russia. However, the Italians have also lost 22 games on the bounce over four-years in the Six Nations so to turn that form around at the World Cup would be amazing.
This will be Parisse’s fifth and final World Cup and nobody would deny that an appearance in the last eight of the tournament is nothing more than he deserves no matter how unlikely. Italy kick-off their World Cup with a clash against Namibia this Sunday where Parisse and co will be looking to start with a win.
