Azzuri’s head coach Nick Mallet announces a reduced 36-man squad for 2011 Rugby World Cup
Italian rugby union’s national team head coach, Nick Mallet, has announced his reduced 36-man squad for the upcoming 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC). The 2011 RWC training squad on was listed on Monday, June 20.
Earlier, on May 31st Mallet had announced a 43-man squad after comprehensively evaluating the player performances in both domestic and European competitions. This roster was further whittled down to the latest training squad of 36 World Cup hopefuls.
The most notable exclusions from the squad are the omission of Italy’s star international hooker Carlo Festuccia and Australian-born fly-half Kris Burton. Roma’s uncapped Tommaso D’Apice has replaced the 51-capped Carlo Festuccia in the squad.
The reduced squad will take part in the training camps focused on fitness and physical conditioning of players. Mallet has rubbished rumors that the exclusion of veteran players means the end of their careers and World Cup hopes. He said, "If it is necessary
to make changes once the training camp has got under way, players like Burton or Festuccia could well be called up.”
After the training camps, Italy will play their two pre-World Cup preparation games against Japan and Scotland. Italy will host Japan on August 13th at Cesena and on August 20th will play against Scotland in Edinburg.
The former Springboks and Stade Francais coach Mallet has termed the training camps a necessary tool to further filter players. He added that the camp will help the management and players to find about the status of progress of their injured players. He
said, “This coming together (training camps) will serve to lift any lingering doubts we have on some of the players.”
Italy is placed in Pool C alongside the USA Eagles, Russia, two times world champions Australia, and Ireland. Italy will kick-start their 2011 campaign against the Wallabies at North Harbour Stadium, Auckland on September 11.
The reduced 36-man Italy’s training camp squad for the 2011 RWC includes
Forwards: Lorenzo Cittadini (Treviso), Alberto De Marchi (Aironi), Salvatore Perugini (Aironi), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Treviso), Tommaso DApice (Roma), Fabio Ongaro (Aironi), Valerio Bernabo (Treviso), Joshua Furno (Aironi), Quintin Geldenhuys (Aironi), Cornelius
Van Zyl (Treviso), Robert Julian Barbieri (Treviso), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais/FRA), Paul Derbyshire (Treviso), Manoa Vosawai (Treviso), Alessandro Zanni (Treviso), Martin Castrogiovanni (Leicester/ENG), Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing-Metro/FRA), Marco Bortolami
(Aironi), Carlo Antonio Del Fava (Aironi), Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais/FRA)
Backs: Pablo Canavosio (Aironi), Fabio Semenzato (Treviso), Riccardo Bocchino (Aironi), Tommaso Benvenuti (Treviso), Gonzalo Garcia (Treviso), Luke McLean (Treviso), Andrea Pratichetti (Treviso), Matteo Pratichetti (Aironi), Alberto Sgarbi (Treviso), Giulio
Toniolatti (Aironi), Luciano Orquera (Brive/FRA), Edoardo Gori (Treviso), Craig Gower (Bayonne/FRA), Mirco Bergamasco (Racing-Metro/FRA), Gonzalo Canale (Clermont/FRA), Andrea Masi (Racing-Metro/FRA)
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