Emotional Canale talks up a storm

IF Italy ran with the ball as much as they do with their fighting talk, we could be in for a very different game this Sunday rather than the arm wrestle they will try and force on Ireland.

If ever a team marches to the beat of its head coach, it is the Italians, who have been happy to pick up the tenor of Nick Mallett’s fighting talk about a front row better and stronger than Ireland’s and run with it.

So, having arrived in Dunedin ahead of the Pool C showdown this weekend under the roof of the Otago Stadium, centre Gonzalo Canale is happy to describe the impending contest as a “war” and Italy’s final, while forwards coach and former Azzurri hooker Carlo Orlandi talks of sending his front row out to “destroy” their opposite numbers.