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Italy reaction after win vs Scotland: 'We will only see this team get better'
By Gary Heatly
Italy’s players gave head coach Fabio Roselli the best possible birthday present on Sunday with a Guinness Women’s Six Nations win in Scotland, and he believes the triumph will give the squad confidence for the rest of the tournament.
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The Italians arrived in Edinburgh for the round three clash off the back of a 38-5 loss to England and then a 54-12 round two home reverse to Ireland on a day when nothing much seemed to go right for them at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma.
Former Italy men’s winger Roselli, who took over at the helm in December from Giovanni Raineri, is not the type of character to panic though and, after the fallow week and then a good few days of training, his charges put in an impressive display against the Scots to cause an upset at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh in round three.
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After the 25-17 bonus-point win on the road to give him a 54th birthday to remember, Roselli said: “We are very, very happy, it was a really important win for the team and what was key was that the players played like they had been in training during the week leading up to the game.
“From the first minute of the match until the last minute, the team played with clarity and had a clear focus around what they were trying to achieve and that allowed us to play the rugby that we know we are capable of.
“At times Scotland put us under a lot of pressure, but we defended really well and, in attack, we created many opportunities and scored five tries.
“We asked the players to bring energy from the first minute. They did that and you could see that they were playing for each other and had belief in the squad and the game plan.”
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Next up for Italy is a home match with unbeaten France in Parma on Saturday in round four before they end their Six Nations campaign at the same venue against Wales.
With no more travel to come, there is a good chance for the squad to really kick on from the win over the Scots, and Roselli is looking forward to seeing the bounce in training this week that any type of victory tends to give a playing group.
“As a coach, you can know the right way to play, but it is the players who have to go out and play that way and in the Scotland game they all did that and they were excellent,” he added.
“I think the win will give the players a lot of confidence going forward into our last two matches in the competition.
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“I have seen the players and the squad as a whole improve a lot in training since I began working with them, but players need wins to give them the confidence and belief that they are on the right track and that what they are doing are the right things.
“I think we will only see this team get better now and the energy levels rise even more – we are excited for moving forward.”
Against Scotland, Italy skipper Elisa Giordano led by example with 15 tackles, and she is also “excited” about the next two games and the future in this Rugby World Cup year.
The number eight said: “We knew that we had to concentrate for the full 80 minutes to get a result against Scotland, and we did that.
“Mentally we were very, very focused all through the training week before the game and that showed in Edinburgh. In attack, we capitalised on a number of our opportunities, something which we maybe did not do in our first two games in the Six Nations, and we defended well.
“We are very excited for the next two games now.”
Winger Aura Muzzo was named player of the match after scoring two tries and carrying for 133 metres against Scotland, and she feels the result can really help lift the squad to the next level.
“Even after two losses, we were confident going into the third game, but against Scotland we found the right way to be confident and we took our chances,” she explained.
“I hope this is the start of our journey. We have two more matches to come in this competition, and we will look to improve with each game that we play.”
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