Marzio Innocenti insists he wants to 'change Italian rugby history' after their historic Six Nations display... but admits he's still 'worried for the future'

Marzio Innocenti, the president and chief executive of the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR), had a full head of grey hair by his mid-thirties, long before he had taken on his current role.

Now 65, Innocenti’s day job isn’t exactly helping to reverse the ageing process.

‘It's a very stressful period for me at the moment because it’s very clear in my mind I have a chance to change Italian rugby history,’ he tells Mail Sport in Treviso.

‘It’s so difficult to do that. Everybody says to me at the moment I must be really happy after the Six Nations and I am. I am really proud.

‘But now I am also really worried for the future. My days must be fully concentrated on the way forward. The target at the moment is probably not so clear. That is a problem.’

Welcome to the world of the rugby administrator, where successes are only ever fleeting and the next goals are set almost immediately. There is no time to rest on your laurels.

On the face of things, all looks rosy in the Italian rugby garden. Wins over Scotland and Wales and a draw with France represented statistically the best senior men’s Six Nations in their history.

After successfully refining their pathway, academy and development systems, the Azzurri have a wealth of young talent coming through. They have shown promise at Under-20 level too, finishing fourth, third and fourth in the last three junior Six Nations. 

Their leading club side Benetton made the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup and are in contention to qualify for the United Rugby Championship play-offs. Last month, Benetton and Italy centre Tommaso Menoncello was named the Six Nations player of the Championship.

Menoncello is a symbol of Italy’s new dawn.

The hope is there is more like him to come too as part of further on-field development.

‘I think this Italian team will be at its best between 2026 and 2029,’ Innocenti says. ‘Their potential is very high. We want to improve the depth of the national team. This is new for Italian rugby.

‘In the past we had a mentality where we thought we weren’t able to play like England or France. I don’t think there is a God of rugby that says in Europe, England, Ireland and France have to be the best. It won’t always be like that. If we work hard, it’s possible to change this history.’

From the lowest of ebbs, Italy began planting new roots in the hope that one day, green shoots of recovery would begin to grow. Their resurgence can be dated back to before Innocenti’s time.

But, as he points out, after once losing 57 straight matches and 36 in a row in the Six Nations, there was no alternative other than to change the country’s rugby modus operandi.

In Italy, rugby remains a minority sport – far behind football and Formula 1 and even below basketball and volleyball. Interest in the sport wasn’t exactly helped by the national team’s past struggles. Innocenti was elected to his current role in 2021, succeeding Alfredo Gavazzi who had successfully started the Italian rugby rebuild. Crucially, Gavazzi began from the bottom up.

Investment was poured into development at junior level with the hope that in time, it would lead to success. Italy are now starting to bear the fruit of that investment.

‘When I was elected, it was probably the worst moment in Italian history because the press wanted Italy out of the Six Nations,’ Innocenti says.

‘We had lost lots of matches and nobody was confident things would change. But we have done good work in the last few years to change the academies.

‘We had a real problem with the pathway for the youth players. Rugby high performance has changed. It’s not like 20 years ago. For the development of young players now you need many, many things. Previously, the moment of transition to high performance was the problem.’

Prior to his death due to a severe form of diabetes, Gavazzi took Italy’s development systems under the control of the FIR, not the clubs. Italy have the lowest revenue in the Six Nations.

But unlike Wales, who they beat in Cardiff earlier this year, the Azzurri invested the money brought in by CVC Capital Partners’ buying of a stake in the Six Nations in their rugby system.

It is pointed out to Innocenti that the Welsh Rugby Union, who have fallen on tragically tough times in a sporting, financial and reputational sense, used their portion of CVC capital to build a hotel in Cardiff. Innocenti smiles. ‘I know,’ he says. ‘I prefer to invest the money in rugby because our business is rugby. I can’t say anything about the decisions of other countries.

‘Maybe a hotel does help. But I wanted to invest in grassroots rugby and the national team to develop the system and strengthen us for the future.’

Italy’s approach is a lesson for countries like Wales and Australia, who are also struggling. Money is not everything and a strong, coherent rugby plan can pay off.

CVC’s involvement in the Six Nations and the pooling of the countries’ commercial interests was known as 'Project Light’ – the irony being that for Wales, it has taken them into the dark.

Italy look like they will have a bright future building to the next World Cup in Australia in 2027, although in that same year, CVC will be looking for a portion of their investment to be returned.

This is not only a problem for Italy, but all the Six Nations unions. It is what is keeping Innocenti up at night.

‘There is a deadline of 2027. If by then we can improve our revenues, then I can continue to invest. That’s what I hope,’ Innocenti says.

‘But if not, I must cut back. England are OK but all the other Six Nations countries are the same. Their balances are negative at the moment. It’s clear we can’t do the same for the next 10 years because it’s too expensive. The worries are financial. The good news is rugby is growing in Italy and we had sold-out stadiums in the Six Nations.

‘In the past we have had one-off victories in the Six Nations. We also beat South Africa. But after those, we destroyed it. My responsibility in this moment is to continue on this way.

‘We hope in the future it’s seen as a normality that Italy can win. After we beat Wales in Cardiff this year, their captain Dafydd Jenkins said it was embarrassing for him they had lost the match.

‘Michele Lamaro, our captain, was very upset by this but I said to him there has been a long history of teams expecting to beat Italy.

‘But if we continue to win, everybody will change their opinion. One day, I hope to win something. When Paolo Garbisi hit the post with his kick against France this year, it cost us a lot of money! If we’d won that match instead of it being a draw, we could have finished in third place, not fifth.

‘That’s a big difference. It was terrible from a sporting perspective but also terrible for my revenues!’

Lamaro now lives in Treviso and plays for Benetton. But he grew up in Rome and lived just a stone’s throw from the capital’s Stadio Olimpico.

‘The Olimpico is in the city centre – not many stadiums are like that,’ he says.

‘We were not a family that was big on football. It was always rugby but I’ve always supported Roma because my friends did.

‘I can remember the traffic from when I was younger. You realised there was a game because of the people. Now I captain my country at the stadium. It’s unbelievable.’

In Lamaro, Menoncello and Ange Capuozzo – who plays his club rugby in France with Champions Cup finalists Toulouse – Italy have huge talents who, all being well, should be Test regulars for the foreseeable. They have also made canny use of bringing in new players.

Harlequins wing Louis Lynagh, once an England training squad member, has been enticed to wear a blue shirt and impressed in the Six Nations. Lynagh will be at Benetton from next season.

Italy’s exiles system also plucked Exeter’s South African-born forward Ross Vintcent from nowhere and turned him into an international. Vintcent’s previous work was delivering pizzas.

Gonzalo Quesada, Italy’s new head coach, started with a bang in this year’s Six Nations, building and evolving on the work done by his predecessor Kieran Crowley.

Summer games in Samoa and Tonga and a match with Japan – followed by autumn fixtures against Argentina, Georgia and New Zealand – are a chance to further Italy’s progression.

‘It’s a really exciting time, 100 per cent,’ Lamaro says. ‘Last year’s World Cup was pretty harsh for us but tough moments create tough people. When we had young guys coming into the team in the past, they had to listen to all the talk about whether Italy should be in the Six Nations or not.

‘Maybe they had a little bit of a losing mindset in the back of their mind. Now we have guys coming in like Louis who has had two games and two wins. It builds confidence in the mind.’

Italy have put debate over their worth to the Six Nations to bed this year.

‘We know we still need to be better and keep improving. But confidence is a big thing. We want the players to not feel stress or pressure on their shoulders,’ Lamaro says.

‘What Jenkins said was from the Wales view. I can understand that but our aim is to change the mindset that other teams think it’s easy to beat Italy. Scotland have been in the same position before and changed everyone’s mind. We know and believe we can do the same.’