Football. After the World Cup, Ange Capuzzo’s Italy is quietly transitioning into the Quesada era

There will be no revolution, in management or style of play: Argentine Gonzalo Quesada, the new coach of Italy, wants to “preserve the basics”, he stressed on Tuesday in Rome during his official presentation.

Since his appointment as president of the Italian national team on June 16, Argentine Gonzalo Quesada has worked hard: he took Italian language lessons, watched all the matches before and during the World Cup for his new team and found “one hundred and fifty ideas” but the former Argentine international (38 caps) retained , who until June was director of the Stade de France (2013-2017 and 2020-2023), has it all to himself. He is waiting to meet his staff, which will be the same as that of his predecessor, New Zealander Kieran Crawley, and his players to launch “deep work of thinking about our shared vision, our identity and our culture,” he explained.

The new Azzurri coach (49 years old) is responsible for a team that “has progressed over the past two years, which is 11 years old.”^H “The world, which qualified for the next World Cup, but remained after two very negative defeats to New Zealand (96-17, editor’s note) and France (60-7, editor’s note),” summed up Italian Federation President Marzio Innocenti.

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No targets detected

The Italian rugby president keeps his feet on the ground: “He must not make us win the Six Nations, he must not beat France, Ireland, South Africa or New Zealand,” without wanting to reveal whether the results were goals or not. He was appointed to Quesada, under contract until the 2027 World Cup.

The first Argentine at the helm of the Italian XV approaches his new task with “a great deal of humility”: “I have nothing to learn in Italian rugby, it is up to me to discover their culture.”

But Quesada, who was in charge of the Blues from 2008 to 2011 and then the Argentine Pumas in 2018, will have to move quickly. In order to prepare for the first match, next February 3, against England in Rome on the first day of the 2024 Six Nations Championship, he will have only two days with his players. “That’s why I have to go to the basics and rely a lot on what they have done so far,” he insisted.

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“Develop this attack that these players love.”

“We have to keep the rules, it is a team that likes to attack, that likes to keep the ball. We have to maintain that attitude but we also have to do a comprehensive job in terms of our exit from the camp, in our defense, in our invasion, in our discipline. With players with high potential Like Paolo Garbisi and winger/full-back Ange Capuzzo, he knows that Italy is capable of achieving things, as he showed by beating Wales in the 2022 tournament, as well as Australia and Samoa in the autumn tour of 2022. .

“We can then develop this attack that these players love and that I also love. “This is my philosophy wherever I am, even if last season in the French stadium we adapted to the team and what was happening in the top 14,” insisted the 2015 French champion coach.

Quesada will settle near Milan to be close to the two federal clubs, Parma and Treviso, and he does not doubt for a moment that his adaptation will be “easy.” “I spent half my life in Argentina, and the other in France. I humbly hope that I can make a little bit of history for this Italian team.”