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The men’s national rugby team plays its second match in the Six Nations tournament against England in London on Sunday. At Twickenham, the stadium of English rugby, Italy has never won, and has never won against England either, which however is now in difficulty and comes from a defeat suffered right at home, against Scotland.
In last Sunday’s debut against France, Italy stood up to the best national team in the world, who won the tournament last year without ever losing. It was only beaten 29-24 in the final, but the performance was encouraging: above all we saw the determination of the new generation of players who, about a year ago, began to establish themselves with results and performances not seen for some time.
In this new generation there is above all Ange Capuozzo, who at last year’s Six Nations, as an unknown, first scored two tries on his debut and then started the action from which the first Italian victory in seven years was born.
(Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)
Since then Capuozzo has become the symbol of this new Italy, also for his appearance not exactly as a rugby player and for his way of moving between opponents that is very reminiscent of a great player of the past, Ivan Francescato, who died suddenly in 1999 while he was at the peak of his career having led rugby’s Italy into the Six Nations.
Capuozzo is 1 meter and 77 centimeters tall, weighs just 80 kilos, does not have flashy muscles and looks younger than his almost 24 years. In today’s rugby it is rare to find a player like this: there are others of his stature, for example Antoine Dupont, voted best player in the world last season, who is also a few centimeters shorter, but weighs almost 90 kilos and has shoulders and arms that stand out.
These characteristics were a disadvantage for Capuozzo in his adolescence and risked distancing him from rugby, especially in years like these in which tonnage is rewarded above all, even among the youngest. Now, however, they are his strong point and have created around him a support that hasn’t been seen in Italy for years, after the retirements of beloved players such as Sergio Parisse and Martin Castrogiovanni.
Italy discovered him by chance in 2019 during a friendly match between the Under 20 national team and Grenoble, the team for which Capuozzo played, having been born in that area of southern France to a family of Italian origin: his paternal grandparents were Neapolitan immigrants. After that match he himself offered to play for Italy and was aggregated thanks to his paternal origins, being immediately called up for the Youth World Cup in Argentina.
By his own admission, the move to Italy was the first turning point in his career, as it gave him the incentive to keep trying to become a professional. In that period he then moved from the role of scrum half to that of full back, or if necessary winger, in order to fully exploit his sense of the game and his best athletic characteristics: explosive speed and agility in straits. In the new position he was the best goalscorer in the French second division.
Then came the 2022 Six Nations. Capuozzo made his debut in the penultimate match against Scotland. During the hymns I look one of the most excited. He entered after half-time and scored two tries in half an hour that made the defeat less heavy, both in his own way: after receiving the ball in the strait, slaloming between the opponents and then diving into the end area.
After having already had a notable impact on his debut, a week later in Cardiff, in the last match against Wales, the decisive action for Italy’s return to victory at the Six Nations after 36 defeats in a row. He found a hole in the Welsh defense which favored the try and then the conversion kick which gave the decisive points in the final seconds.
(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
He was named that day’s player of the tournament and video of his action circulated for weeks. Shortly after, Toulouse, the great French team at the time reigning European champions, took the opportunity to buy him from Grenoble.
For a year now, when he returns to play for Italy he manages to always be decisive and a constant danger for the opposing defences. On November 12, he scored two tries in Italy’s first ever victory against Australia: two accelerations in the last 22 meters of the pitch that left the opponents on the spot. A week later Italy lost 63-21 in Genoa to defending champions South Africa but despite this Capuozzo managed to score another try.
At the end of the year, the impact he made in his first matches for Italy earned him the prize of revelation of the year of World Rugby, the world federation. Today Capuozzo is one of the three most symbolic players of the national team, together with captain Michele Lamaro and fly-half Paolo Garbisi, all under 24 years of age. The three of them in particular represent well the renewed enthusiasm that exists for the team and the ambition to obtain new results. Meanwhile Capuozzo has already left his mark in this Six Nations, scoring Italy’s only try against France, and now everyone is waiting to see more.
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