The Italian rugby team have chosen Nelson as their World Cup base for a reason.Head coach Nick Mallett is now hoping that Nelson's significant Italian community will help provide the crucial support base his team is looking for.
Although Italy begin their campaign against Australia at North Harbour Stadium next Sunday, they have critical pool C matches against Russia and USA at Nelson's Trafalgar Park, where Mallett is hoping for a decisive edge.
"We were very lucky that the [Nelson] mayor [Aldo Miccio] came over and watched our game against France in the Six Nations and we had a chance to meet him.
"He met with the team and he said to them that Nelson was really looking forward to the Italian side coming over there and that there was quite a strong Italian community here," said Mallett.
"And I think our performances in the Six Nations, you know we're a side that's never the favourite, we're usually the underdog and we do our best to be as competitive as possible and for us to get a win like we did against France [22-21] gave a lot of pleasure to not only the Italian supports, but gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of other supporters as well, supporters who always back the underdog as opposed to the favourite. So we've come here expecting to get support and our [expectation] is that everyone here in Nelson is our fan and we'd like to play as though they're our home supporters."
Mallett said that the players tried to stay awake during the first part of the journey from Rome to Dubai and from Dubai to Bangkok and was confident that, despite some initial tiredness, they were adjusting well to the new time zone ahead of yesterday's first official training run at Saxton Oval.
Italian captain Sergio Parisse remains confident that the Azzurri can finally break their World Cup drought and qualify for this year's quarterfinals.
Italy have competed at all six previous World Cup tournaments without progressing beyond pool play. However, the Argentinian-born Italian skipper was feeling upbeat about his team's prospects and expected that it could possibly come down to their final pool match against Ireland in Dunedin on October 2 to determine their ultimate goal.
Parisse, regarded as one of the leading No8s in world rugby, has played 79 internationals for Italy, including 31 as captain, and said that he was a different player, physically and technically, from the one who made his international debut as an 18-year-old in the 64-10 loss to New Zealand in Hamilton in 2002. And, despite their lack of World Cup success, he said that the team had also grown. Parisse also competed at the last two tournaments in Australia and France and has eight World Cup appearances.
Appointed Italian captain by Mallett in 2008, he said he had assumed even more responsibility which had helped his development as a player.
He said that at the 2007 World Cup in France, despite losing 76-14 to the All Blacks in their opening game, Italy probably had an easier pool with games against Romania, Portugal and Scotland. They beat Romania 24-18 and Portugal 31-5 before narrowly losing 18-16 to Scotland to end their qualifying hopes.
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