Burgeoning bunch needed to change ageing face of Italian rugby

You’ll know him as a full-back, but Luke McLean started life in Italian blue as a ten. The temptation is to ask, who hasn’t?

Seven years have swung by since the Aussie-born back first represented the land of his grandmother’s birth against South Africa in Cape Town. The early months of his Test career tell you a lot on why Italy failed to kick on after 15 years of Six Nations.

Pablo Luis Canavosio was his scrum-half that first day. Simon Picone partnered him a week later when they faced Argentina in Cordoba and, come that year’s November internationals, McLean had started the shift to 15 and Pietro Travagli was scrounging at the base of the scrum.