Round twenty years. It was February 5, 2000 when the Italy of rugby took the field for the first time in the 6 Nations tournament (which before its entry was called 5 Nations and saw Wales challenge each other, which still has the record for editions won with 39, England, Ireland, Scotland and France): a debut, however, bathed in an historic success, 34-20 against Scotland at the Flaminio stadium in Rome, home of blue rugby before moving, starting in 2012, to the larger and safer Olympic stadium.
The first one is therefore good, but the others are a little less so. In these long twenty years, during which one would have expected Italrugby's affirmation among the greats of Europe and the world, the replicas of that triumph against Scotland, signed by the reference player of the time, Diego Dominguez, are be very few. Indeed, 14 consecutive defeats followed immediately and today a streak of 22 defeats in a row is still open: the Italy national rugby union team hasn't won a match in the 6 Nations since 2013.
In between, there were some sporadic victories: 6 matches won out of 50 played in the first decade of participation, and another 6 in the second decade. The total is 12, minus gods 14 wooden spoons (i.e. of the last places), even these equally distributed over the years (7 up to 2009, another 7 from 2010 to today), while the so-called whitewash, i.e. the tournaments concluded by losing all the games played, are almost half of the total, 9 in all, of which four in the last four editions, and with the strong risk that we will reach the round figure already this year. In fact, Italy has already played the first match of the 6 Nations 2020, losing soundly at Wales: 42-0.
The team most beaten by the Azzurri was Scotland: out of 12 victories, 7 against the Scots, one of which in Edinburgh in 2007, to date the only one obtained away. Otherwise we won twice against France and Wales, once against Ireland and never against the English. The most representative player of the unlucky blue epic was undoubtedly Sergio Parisserecently retired captain: he made 129 appearances including four consecutive World Cups, taking the field in fourteen Six Nations tournaments, from 2003 to 2016
If from a sporting point of view the Italy of rugby has garnered little satisfaction, the same cannot be said of the overall growth of the movement: rugby, and even some of its rituals such as the third half, have become trendy, often inspiring the Italian sporting debate, and the budget of the Federation itself, founded in 1928 and today led by Alfredo Gavazzi, it has grown incredibly over time: from 8 billion lire in 1999 to 34 million euros in 2009, up to today's 46 million to which another 55 will be added spread over the next 4 years.
The movement exploded at the level of enrolled: today there are thirty thousand between the ages of 6 and 12, against 16 thousand twenty years ago. Yet top teams have not come out and we are still waiting for the first title in the 6 Nations.
