England v Italy
Parisse's hopes pinned on England complacency
Enrico Borra
February 12, 2015

On Saturday, Italy will travel to Twickenham to face an in-form England team who put down a marker against Wales last Friday. In contrast, Jacques Brunel's men were beaten in Rome by champions Ireland in a far less entertaining match and are already targeting the game at Murrayfield for their first win. Saturday will see opposing circumstances for the championship's highest and lowest team of the World Rugby rankings.

Italy's 37% possession and territory in the loss to Ireland created some unprecedented turmoil in the media and the Azzurri are aware of what went missing in Rome. "There is a broad sense of frustration in the dressing room," Sergio Parisse told ESPN. "We were not able to play our game and we just defended too much without keeping the ball. That's not exactly what we had in mind before the game and that's not what we wanted to show our loyal fans at the Stadio Olimpico."

 
"I am not saying they will underestimate us, but clearly after such a crucial win there is the risk that their attention to detail will be a bit more relaxed"
 

There were some positives to take from the loss, however. "We played well in defence," Parisse said. 'But we wasted too much energy preventing them scoring tries and we paid for that in the last 20 minutes. We got a yellow card and we played with 13 men when Campagnaro got injured. You simply can't beat a team like Ireland that way.

"I think that at the end the best team got the two points and that's fair enough" explained the man that come Saturday will be winning his 110th Italy cap. "But we should have played differently in the game.

"If I look back at Saturday, we got possession at the end of the first-half and we failed to the cross from a line out but we got three points from the tee, and then again, at the end of the game we had our only passage of play that got over six phases and we score that disallowed try. So we clearly have the weapons to be dangerous but we must be able keep possession longer than what we showed against Ireland."

For the Twickenham trip, Italy will be without center Michele Campagnaro and flanker Alessandro Zanni, whose Six Nations has already ended due to a knee injury.

Having three home games gave Italy some pre-tournament optimism but Saturday's loss and in the wake of losing two key players they now may be forced to turn their focus on trying to avoid their second consecutive wooden spoon. Parisse, however, does not buy into that.

Italy No.8 Sergio Parisse dives to score a try, Italy v Samoa, Stadio Del Duca, Ascoli Piceno, November 8, 2014
Sergio Parisse has been arguably Italy's finest player © Getty Images
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"No, nothing has changed in our minds," Parisse said. "We just have to stay focused on our game plan. A convincing game against England will help us get back on the right track and look at the Murrayfield challenge with confidence."

Parisse is expecting a huge battle against England, a team Italy has never been able to beat. "We watched the game on Friday night and we've seen what everybody else has: England is a strong, in-form team.

"They are filled with young, exciting talents and they won a high-intensity encounter so clearly Saturday will be tough for us. But we are looking at the challenge as a chance to prove to ourselves we are still a completive team."

Two years ago Jacques Brunel's side turned a visit to Twickenham into one of its best overall away performances ever in the Six Nations. And they ended up winning two games against France and, for the first time in the championship, Ireland.

Yet against England, Italy only have defeats to show for their efforts. "I think the mental approach will be key for us," Parisse said. "We must be focused on turning the tide and we must do so in a very difficult place to play. We need to get ball in hand more and try to concentrate for the whole 80 minutes. Our line out was very poor against Ireland so at the moment we are working to fix that problem."

Is there an area of the game Italy may try to get an edge in? "Not really but I think mentally we may arrive more prepared than we have in the past," Parisse said. "They won a huge battle in a very unfriendly stadium and they may lack a bit of focus when they face us on Saturday.

"I am not saying they will underestimate us, but clearly after such a crucial win there is the risk that their attention to detail will be a bit more relaxed." Parisse and Italy hope that will be the case in yet another match where they go into it as overwhelming underdogs.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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