Italy’s brothers in arms set to sing Fratelli d’Italia against Uruguay

NICE – When Italy line up to face Uruguay in the Rugby World Cup on Wednesday, and the national anthem rings out around the Stade de Nice, the opening words will have a special meaning for four members of the team.

Il Canto degli Italiani (The Song of the Italians) is probably better known by those first words, Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), and it is sure to be an emotional moment for the Garbisi and Cannone siblings.

For Paolo and Alessandro Garbisi, and Lorenzo and Niccolo Cannone, this is their first Rugby World Cup, and with all four picked to start, it will be the first time that Italy have two sets of brothers starting in a World Cup game.

When scrum-half Alessandro made his Italy debut against Romania in July 2022, his older brother Paolo was on the bench. Alessandro scored a try in that first game, and the pair were on the field together for just seven minutes.

“Being two years older, I’ve always done things a little before Alessandro, so we had never played in the same team before that game,” said Paolo, 23.

The brothers finally started their first game together, again against Romania, in the World Cup warmup win in August.

Lorenzo and Niccolo, in contrast, started four of Italy’s 2023 Six Nations games together. Before that, just like the Garbisis, Niccolo, 25, also came off the bench to join his younger brother, 22, on his debut.

Lorenzo’s first game with Italy came against Samoa in November 2022. He also repeated Alessandro’s feat of scoring a try on his debut, and spent the final 30 minutes playing alongside Niccolo.

All eyes will be on the quartet when they passionately sing their national anthem on Wednesday, and it will be a very proud moment for both the Cannone and Garbisi families.

Following that, the Italians will head into the clash in the knowledge that Uruguay will likely have targeted them rather than Pool A heavyweights France and New Zealand.

Italy kicked off their campaign with

a 52-8 victory over Namibia,

while Uruguay were combative against a second-string France before going down 27-12.

Hosts France lead the pool on eight points with two wins and the All Blacks are level with Italy on five points after a win and a defeat.

With two huge games against New Zealand and then France on Sept 29 and Oct 6, Italy know they need to beat Uruguay to go into those games with their heads held high.

“This is their World Cup game, they want to beat us with everything,” Italy defence coach Marius Goosen said.

“They’re not the lesser team but if you look at Namibia, Chile and all those teams who, when they play the so-called third-ranked team in the group, that’s their World Cup.

“I’m sure Uruguay, if you speak to them, they will say Italy are everything for them. They don’t really look at France and New Zealand probably. We know what’s coming and we’re ready for it.

“If we don’t front up properly, we’ll get beaten.”

Italy coach Kieran Crowley has made changes to his team, with Paolo named as inside-centre in place of Luca Morisi, while Lorenzo Pani makes his World Cup debut at right wing as star player Ange Capuozzo returns to fullback.

Alessandro starts at scrum-half in place of Stephen Varney, while Niccolo replaces Dino Lamb at lock and Marco Riccioni is in the front row ahead of Simone Ferrari.

Tommaso Allan started at fullback in Italy’s win over Namibia but switches to fly-half.

Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses has just two changes to his starting 15 from the team beaten by France, with German Kessler coming in at hooker and Gaston Mieres on the wing.

“I’m expecting an Italian team confident in attack,” he said.

“It will be a good game, a balanced game, I believe.” REUTERS, AFP