Italy’s star outhalf Paolo Garbisi is set to return to their starting line-up for next Saturday’s Six Nations clash against Ireland at the Stadio Olimpico (kick-off 3.15 local time/2.15 Irish, live on Virgin Media TV and ITV).
The 22-year-old missed Italy’s opening two games with the knee injury he sustained when playing for Montpellier on December 30th away to Bordeaux Begles but made his comeback when playing the last 30 minutes of his club’s 31-21 loss in Lyon last Saturday.
Garbisi, who scored a try on his Test debut against Ireland in the 2020 Six Nations, had been an ever present in the last two Championships, landing the winning conversion against Wales with the last kick of the game in the dramatic 22-21 victory which ended their 36-match losing streak in the tournament last March.
[ Sign up for our new weekly rugby newsletter from Gerry ThornleyOpens in new window ]
Tommaso Allan had ably deputised for Garbisi in the opening two rounds when Italy lost 29-24 to France at home and 31-14 to England in Twickenham, as he had also done when the Azzurri beat Australia last November.
It had been expected that Garbisi would be ruled out of the Azzurri’s first three games but Italian sources are confident that Kieran Crowley will restore him to the number 10 jersey against Ireland.
Garbisi was a key factor in Montpellier winning the French Championship for the first time ever last season when he became their first-choice outhalf ahead of the World Cup-winning Handré Pollard, who has since moved to Leicester.
There has been some speculation that Crowley might also make a change at scrumhalf in light of Alessandro Fusco’s try-scoring impact off the bench against England, but in light of Garbisi’s anticipated return, it is likely that the Italian head coach will stick with Stephen Varney given the amount of times they have played together.
One other change aside from Garbisi’s anticipated return will be among the replacements given the desperately unlucky Jake Polledri has been ruled out for the remainder of the Six Nations after undergoing shoulder surgery.
The 27-year-old Gloucester backrower was bridging a gap of two years and three months away from Test rugby when coming on as a replacement in Twickenham last Sunday week, dating back to the serious knee injury he suffered playing against Scotland in the Autumn Nations Cup in November 2020 and which sidelined him for almost 18 months.
The nine-times capped, 26-year-old Benetton flanker Giovanni Pettinelli will likely come back into the match day 23.
Despite Sergio Parisse confirming his retirement at the end of the season earlier this month, there had been rumours that the former Italian number eight and captain might make a return to the Test arena for the first time since the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
“It’s important that this version of Italy grows their own way and the young players create their own direction,” admitted Parisse when making his announcement. “For most of my career, we always offered a good set-piece and powerful physical challenge, but this new team are playing some great rugby with a lot of width and pace, which is fantastic to see.
“It’s their game, and they are creating both their own DNA and their own memories. It’s absolutely key that Kieran picks the best Italian team he can, and currently, I’m not one of those players, which is fine.”
Parisse is Italy’s all-time record caps holder, with 142 Tests placing him fourth in the all-time list (one ahead of Brian O’Driscoll), but the 39-year-old had half-jokingly not ruled out the “last dance” of a sixth World Cup, adding that if the call ever came from Crowley he would not say no.
However, that unlikely dream has been all but eroded, for this Six Nations anyway, as Italy’s greatest ever rugby player is likely to receive a lengthy ban following his red card when playing for Toulon in their marquee Top 14 game against Toulouse last Saturday night, a game that was moved to the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.
Parisse spear-tackled Toulouse centre Pierre-Louis Barassi after 33 minutes, and after a video review he was red carded, shaking hands with referee Pierre-Baptiste Nuchy before leaving the field.
The 39-year-old was clearly emotional in the changing rooms afterwards, where a Canal+ TV camera showed him with his head in his hands and crying while being comforted by Raphaël Lakafia and Mathieu Bastareaud.
The pictures would have moved many in French rugby, where Parisse is adored after spending 14 seasons with Stade Francais and the last four with Toulon. Last Saturday’s game was his 251st in the Top 14, but his tears were no doubt not entirely due to his dismissal.
The day before, Parisse had been in the church of San Francesco in L’Aquila to hold the hands of his mother Carmela, to embrace his sister Manuela and brother Gianluca, at the funeral of his father Sergio, who died at the age of 77 last week.
The coffin was wrapped in a black-and-green flag, the colours of Aquila Rugby with which Parisse senior had won the Scudetto in 1967 as a winger before passing on his name and passion for rugby to his son.
“It wasn’t a week like any other for Sergio: he left for L’Aquila for his father’s funeral, a rugby player like him, which had been scheduled for the eve of the match,” said the Toulon head coach Franck Azéma after their 17-6 win over the Top 14 leaders.
“Then the captain returned a few hours before the match and asked to play, as did Cheslin Kolbe, albeit starting from another type of emotion: also on the eve he had witnessed the birth of his son. Of these players one cannot help but admire their desire to be on the pitch to support the team in an important day”.
