By CHRIS HEWETT
The Italians are preparing for what many believe will be Brad Johnstone's final game as a Six Nations coach on Monday.
His imminent departure comes as increasingly hard questions are being asked of the national rugby team. Will they ever be any good? Do they merit their
place in the Six Nations community or are they undermining the competitive and commercial credibility of the oldest, grandest tournament in rugby?
The fact that Johnstone, the gnarled All Black prop who took charge following Italy's miserable showing in the 1999 World Cup, is considering walking out of a contract that does not expire for another 18 months, and that his coaching collaborator, the World Cup-winning former All Black wing John Kirwan, feels seriously tempted by an offer from Montferrand, appears to provide an answer or two.
Johnstone says the Italian game is "a shambles".
The national union has fallen out of love with the former builder from the North Shore - his team selection has been openly criticised, not least when he started picking two imports, the South African fullback Gert Peens and the New Zealand flanker Matt Phillips, in the same starting formation, and he has frequently found himself in a minority of one during his public squabbles with senior players, most notably the halfback, Alessandro Troncon.
At the same time, the administrators offer precious little financial or logistical support to the clubs in Italy's elite "Super 10" league.
And by way of running down the curtain on another fruitless Six Nations campaign - they have not won a championship match since their first, against Scotland, 26 months and 13 games ago - Italy must face England at the Stadio Flaminio on Monday morning (NZT).
Two seasons ago, they leaked six tries and 60 points to the red rose army in Rome; last year, they shipped 10 tries and a record-busting 80 points at Twickenham.
England supporters will be expecting another walloping.
Yet Johnstone has dragged Italian rugby a few rungs up the ladder. His most gifted forwards, Mauro Bergamasco and Carlo Checchinato, can now mix it with the very best, and he has introduced a raft of quality front-rowers to the demands of the international game: Andrea Lo Cicero, Tino Paoletti and Salvatore Perugini.
Two more props, Giampiero de Carli and Federico Pucciarello, are playing the best test rugby of their careers. And 21-year-old lock Marco Bortolami is the most exciting player unearthed in the country since Bergamasco.
What is more, the Italians stack up statistically against the neighbouring French, who provide the only sensible, if elderly, yardstick on their progress.
The Tricolors joined the championship in 1910, were whitewashed in their first season and, after beating Scotland at the start of the 1911 campaign, lost 17 straight games.
By comparison, Italy stand tall. They pushed France every centimetre of the way in Paris two years ago, and would have been more competitive still in February but for a now familiar torrent of sin-binnings. They deserved to beat the Scots at Murrayfield last year and were far more of a handful in Dublin last time out than the Irish thought possible.
On average, they lose their Six Nations games 40-19 - the kind of defeat Wales and Scotland now routinely expect against the All Blacks, the Wallabies and, whisper it quietly, England.
An English slaughter this weekend will surely lure the Six Nations Jeremiahs from their grief-holes.
There will be nostalgic cravings for the Five Nations of old and suggestions that the Italians might usefully relegate themselves to the European 'B' championship and regather some momentum against Russia, Georgia and Romania.
More worrying still, a heavy defeat might weaken the Azzurri hand when they come to negotiate their portion of a new television deal due to be signed during the summer.
Much of modern rugby remains a mystery to the poor deluded folk who purport to administer the game via the International Rugby Board.
As we speak, these people cannot tell us where next year's World Cup will be played, who is likely to play in it, when a draw might be staged or on what basis the seedings will be allocated.
They know this much, though. Rugby cannot afford the kind of shrinkage already in progress as a result of the failure of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Romania, Canada and the United States to meet the demands of professionalism.
If Italy go the same way - and, without Six Nations exposure, there will be no other way for them to go - the union code will be left with nine candidates for eight World Cup quarter-final positions. And one of those, heaven help us, will be Wales.
- INDEPENDENT
Six Nations results and standings
Six Nations schedule
By CHRIS HEWETT
The Italians are preparing for what many believe will be Brad Johnstone's final game as a Six Nations coach on Monday.
His imminent departure comes as increasingly hard questions are being asked of the national rugby team. Will they ever be any good? Do they merit their
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