Italian rugby hoping to take youth success onto the biggest stage

Italy's sensational Six Nations win over Wales prompted star Ange Capuozzo to urge his countrymen to prove they were not a "dead nation", and bubbling below the Azzurri's senior team is a youth sector which is very much alive.

The day after that historic win at the Principality Stadium, Italy's under-20s ran in four tries in a convincing 27-20 win over the Welsh, their third win in that age group's Six Nations after also beating Scotland and England.

The under-20 team's displays are no fluke as the under-18s have also been racking up wins against the northern hemisphere's big boys in recent years.

Around 120 of Italy's most talented under-18 and under-19 players train at four national centres run by the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) in Milan, Rome, Treviso and Prato which then feed their best to a single national academy for the under-20s.

Milan's is hosted at the Istituto Leone XIII, a private school located on the edge of the city's well-heeled City Life district.

The players stay there Monday to Thursday, going to school either on site or elsewhere in Milan before training in the afternoon on the school's rugby and football pitches, which they share with the regular primary and secondary pupils.

"We need to find a way to help our boys study, train, eat, sleep and have quality social time in the most economically sustainable way possible," the FIR's technical director Daniele Pacini told AFP.

The centres, which have been in place since 2016 and each cost the FIR around 400,000 euros a year, offer differing environments.

For instance the Rome centre is hosted in the national Olympic training facility and has a better sporting infrastructure but no school on site and is in a city with poor public transport links.

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