Confident Italy await Scots

Italy coach John Kirwan took his players to one of the biggest football matches in Italy as part of his preparations for this weekend’s RBS 6 Nations encounter against Scotland.

The Italy squad were present on Sunday as Lazio played AC Milan in Serie A in front of 55,000 fans at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

There will be significantly less people at the 25,000-capacity Stadio Flaminio on Saturday but Italy should still be roared on by a vociferous following in their clash with Scotland.

Both sides go into the match seeking their first wins of this season’s competition and although Italy are full of hope, flanker Aaron Persico is warning his countrymen not to become complacent.

“On Saturday we must play with calm. The Scottish team is young but after their bad opening game against the Welsh, they played better against the English and they will come to Rome with every intention to win,” he said.

Nevertheless, Persico is still confident that Italy can defeat the Scots and believes the Azzurri can win the match up front.

“We must try to gain metre after metre because our scrum is strong enough to contain the Scots in my opinion,” said the highly-rated Leeds Tykes back-rower.

“I’m in good shape and my fitness appears to be at its best at present so I’m ready to play on Saturday in front our fans which I think will be numerous,” he added.

Despite losing heavily in their matches against England and France, Italy received many plaudits for their defensive prowess in the two games.

However, they offered very little in attack, scoring just nine points in the two games, and the Azzurri coaching staff have been working hard to improve that area of their game in training.

“Our technical staff have been specifically working on the attacking tactics, because our defence at present is superb,” said Persico.

“We re-started training last Friday, rested on Saturday and on Sunday we went to see Lazio against AC Milan at the Olimpico, so to be honest the proper training started on Monday, which has been very hard but useful, especially when you have to challenge an aggressive team like the Scots.”