I won't talk about how Italy are deservedly out of this WC; I'll just say that I'm 100% happy that they got hammered that way. Our farm system is completely f(expletive)ed up, teams and inept coaches trying to win games instead of developing players, even more since when (2002) we've started to fill the roster with players discarded from the other nations (15 of them now!). All they can do is to throw some big bodies around, and indeed our pack is decent enough to compete with every other nation; too bad then that our backs are unable to catch more than 2 balls in a row even at the absimally slow pace at which they can pass; not that surprising, when all they were taught is "just go in, you're bigger than them!" until they're 21. Why practice kicks? Why practice passes? Let's just go straight, we'll dominate in youth rugby! Then, on international stage, they discover that now just running straight towards the defender, who's big if not bigger than them, becomes useless, and have then to learn the basics, but's already too late by then. People have been blaming every single coach since Geoges Coste, but the truth is that the system is rotten; just like the Bangladesh cricket team, who continuosly blame their coach when the truth is that is impossible to do much with such players, so it is for the italian backs, who are technically and tactically miles behind their opponents, without any improvement in that area in the last 10 years. All of this without taking into account another certain BIG problem in Italian rugby, but about THAT one I wouldn't count that other boards are clean, so I'll not bring the point up.
Happy flight home fellas, enjoy watching the quarters yet another time from your couch.
Hope Drew Mitchell's ok, seemed to pull up badly with a hamstring injury; after the progress he made to even get to the World Cup that'd be such a shame if hes then ruled out before the knockouts.
