{"id":268076,"date":"2025-11-07T05:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268076\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T05:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:06:12","slug":"star-flanker-on-making-test-team-lions-incident-and-match-vs-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268076\/","title":{"rendered":"Star flanker on making test team, Lions incident and match vs Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impact on his neck ruled Tizzano out of the third Lions Test<\/a>, while online abuse and accusations he had taken a dive provided an unsavoury postscript. Tizzano, though, moved on quickly, both physically and mentally. He had to \u2013 the Wallabies departed for the Rugby Championship Tests against South Africa days later.<\/p>\n

Over coffee in the late autumn sunshine in Udine, where the Wallabies will face Italy on Saturday (Sunday morning, AEDT), Tizzano is happy to be back in the land of his forefathers. It feels perverse to return to the Lions series three months on, but the questions need to be asked. Firstly, what did he feel when Morgan hit him at the ruck?<\/p>\n

\"Carlo<\/p>\n

Carlo Tizzano is cleaned out by Jac Morgan in the second Test.Credit: Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been taken off for an injury ever, touch wood, but, obviously, it was contact to back of head, or neck, and my foot was actually on one of my players\u2019 boots,\u201d Tizzano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t necessarily super balanced, and because Jac\u2019s a tough dude, he\u2019s a powerful athlete, so getting in that position, I\u2019m quite low, and that just jams you back. Having nerve damage in my neck previously, if anyone that\u2019s had nerve damage, it\u2019s like boiling water gets poured through from your neck all the way down your trap in your arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hit my head, my nerve stuff activated, I\u2019m gonna hold my head \u2026 so yeah, that is what happened. I can\u2019t change the past, but, you know what, move on \u2013 it\u2019s water under the bridge. Honestly, I haven\u2019t even thought about it since that week, and it\u2019s all gone now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ask any player in Australia who has faced Tizzano, and they will tell you he rarely stays down after heavy contact. He sustained a knee injury against Japan but played through severe pain to finish the game. After being told he could potentially be out for several weeks, Tizzano politely disagreed, flew from Tokyo to London and used up the plane\u2019s supply of ice to ensure he could get back to training at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n

The online criticism he suffered didn\u2019t bother him. He believes growing up in an Italian household and swapping insults with his three brothers helped him develop a tough skin early. As a professional athlete, Tizzano has also benefited from working closely with Penrith Panthers mental skills coach Dan Haesler, who he credits with helping him shut out external noise.<\/p>\n

However, Tizzano was surprised by the criticism he received from former Test players, especially the suggestion he had \u201cdived\u201d<\/a> in an attempt to win a penalty after the Morgan clear-out. Tizzano refuses to name any pundits who criticised him after the Lions Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe those guys who played previously, the pundits, would be a bit more considerate and understand, because they\u2019ve been there, done it,\u201d Tizzano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpectators haven\u2019t done it. They haven\u2019t played Test match rugby. But these guys that have, and they understand what your body goes through every single week, that\u2019s the thing I didn\u2019t \u2013 and I don\u2019t \u2013 really understand. I don\u2019t think I ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though ruled out of the thirst Test, Tizzano watched the match from the sidelines and, afterwards, Morgan approached him to offer his support \u2013 an act that touched the Force player.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull credit to Jac Morgan,\u201d Tizzano said. \u201cAfter the third Test, he came up to me straight away and actually spoke to me, and said, \u2018Mate, I hope you\u2019re good, I thought you had an awesome tour and you\u2019re a great player.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really appreciated him, he didn\u2019t have to do that, but he\u2019s the No.7, he gets it. He gets the weekly grind of what you have to put your body through, even just when you\u2019re training.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Force breakaway also received support from teammates, Schmidt and former players, notably his old sparring partner at the Waratahs, Michael Hooper. He retains a valuable perspective on criticism from anonymous accounts online that came his way.<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u2019s<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Carlo Tizzano is tackled by defenders in Japan after an impressive performance.Credit: AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone who has no profile pic on Instagram, is following 5,000 accounts, has no followers, no photos and is on private is saying, \u2018Carlo Tizzano is a coward\u2019, or a cheater, or whatever, if they still think that, feel free to come have a chat to me face-to-face \u2013 and not in a confrontational way,\u201d Tizzano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to talk to them and enlighten them on what it\u2019s like as a rugby player, come into a session and watch us do breakdown work, come into a gym session, see how much neck work we do to make sure that we are able to do the job we do, and put on a performance for them to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tizzano is easy and enjoyable company, helping to order coffees in Italian and politely offering to pay. The Lions series is in the past and he is deeply disappointed the knee injury will prevent him playing against Italy. On Thursday, Tizzano\u2019s brother Cristiano, who plays for Benetton nearby in Treviso, joined the Wallabies for training.<\/p>\n

Tizzano had the opportunity to play for Italy, having been contacted by former coach Conor O\u2019Shea in 2018 about his availability, before taking the long route with the Wallabies and eventually making his Test debut last August against South Africa.<\/p>\n

Nursing an espresso, Tizzano talks of his pride in his family heritage, from his dad Eno and mum Sonia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially the last couple of years, I\u2019m really proud of where my family\u2019s from, but also, I\u2019m extremely proud Australian and I\u2019m so happy to be Australian,\u201d Tizzano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so honoured to be playing for the Australian national team, but I\u2019m from my parents and my heritage is from Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s, I think, where my passion, my fire, my competitive edge on the field shows, it\u2019s very Neapolitan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

That competitive edge is needed to earn a starting spot in the Wallabies No.7 jumper, given Tizzano\u2019s direct competitor is Fraser McReight, who will start against Italy, after an outstanding performance in the defeat against England last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Tizzano was desperate to play against Italy, but understands that although his mind is strong, his knee needs a little extra time to recover. Tizzano is an admirer of McReight\u2019s skillset, but that doesn\u2019t mean he isn\u2019t desperate to take his Wallabies jersey from him soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so lucky and privileged to be in a position with a guy like Fraser because say against Japan, I went and thought I went and had a really good game,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then he goes against England and gets five turnovers, he just went, you know what, I\u2019m going to one-up you.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow when I play next, I\u2019m like, \u2018You know what, now I need to one-up you\u2019. We\u2019re not necessarily the closest of friends, but we have that type of competitive edge with each other \u2013 just trying to constantly do better than one another, but in a healthy way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see him do well because if he\u2019s doing well, I want to do better and vice versa. I think it\u2019s a really healthy competition to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been competing with each other for a very long time, seven years now, where we\u2019ve just been breathing down each other\u2019s throats. It\u2019s really cool, and I hope it carries on for many more years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The impact on his neck ruled Tizzano out of the third Lions Test, while online abuse and accusations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}