Nick Mallett believes Italy’s halfback pairing could be the difference as they chase a first victory over England.
The teams meet in Rome on Saturday – a fixture the Azzurri have never won in 32 previous Tests.
But Mallett believes brothers Alessandro and Paolo Garbisi could finally give the hosts the control they once lacked.
The former Springbok coach, who coached Italy between 2007 and 2011, says his own side had the pack to compete with the world’s best, but struggled to replace veteran halfbacks Diego Dominguez and Alessandro Troncon.
“I thought our pack was as good as anyone in the world,” Mallett told AFP.
Alongside No 8 Sergio Parisse, Italy boasted forwards such as Martin Castrogiovanni, Andrea Lo Cicero, Marco Bortolami and Mauro Bergamasco.
“In fact, we held South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, France. We didn’t take a backward step against any of those teams.
“But unfortunately, we had very, very inexperienced halfbacks because both [flyhalf] Diego Dominguez and [scrumhalf] Alessandro Troncon had played and played and played, and then they both retired at 36 or something like that.
“And there was just no one to take their places. So that was really difficult.”
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Mallett rotated through nine different halfback combinations during his 20 Six Nations matches in charge of Italy as he searched for stability in the key decision-making roles.
“If you don’t have a nine and 10 who understand how to drive your team properly, your decision-making at nine and 10, when to kick, when to pass, when to tell the forwards to take it up, when to play wide, when to kick wide, when to chip for your centres, or grubbers – all those decisions come from tremendous experience from nine and 10, and we just didn’t have it,” he said.
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“So that’s a big difference. [Paolo] Garbisi’s got it. And I think whoever they play at nine, they’re very experienced.
“He’s got a very good left boot but he also knows when to play out the back or whether to play up a bloke coming on the flat line.
“He can be a threat himself, he can put little grubbers or chips through. I think he’s really matured a lot.”
ITALY – 15 Lorenzo Pani, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Michele Lamaro (c), 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Bench: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Riccardo Favretto, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Tommaso Allan.
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– AFP
Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
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