Has there ever been a more wondrous start to a tournament than the first weekend of this term’s Six Nations? In any sport for that matter. England playing like the All Blacks, with Owen Farrell in stupendous form and Billy Twelvetrees, the face of a choirboy and the frame of Hercules, blasting all before him; a reborn Ireland on the way to crushing Wales in Cardiff before beating off a thrilling fightback; and then the best of all, on a sunny afternoon in front of a roaring Roman crowd.
When you saw Italy’s warrior prop, Leicester’s Martin Castrogiovanni, hirsute and terrifying, belting out the last words of his country’s anthem — ‘Italy has called us,’ if you’re interested — with a ferocity that could have blasted the cameraman over the walls of the Olympic Stadium and into the Tiber, you knew that Les Bleus would not have it all their own way. And by golly they didn’t. A thrilling match, possibly the best of the weekend, seemed to signal a shifting of a few plates in northern hemisphere rugby. Italy have been making great progress, despite a weaker domestic infrastructure than their more eminent rivals, and they ran Australia close in Florence in November. But they have never really had a fly half, either as a place kicker or a playmaker since Diego Dominguez a decade back.
But here they had Luciano Orquera, rightly man of the match for his display at No. 10. But was there a better player anywhere over the weekend than Italy’s massive, brilliant No. 8 and captain Sergio Parisse? Arise Sir Sergio, I say. He’s played most of his international rugby with players of more average ability but he has never failed to deliver.
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