Simone Ferrari has put in two huge performances for Italy at the start of the Six Nations, being a one-man scrum wrecking ball in the win over Scotland then a whirling dervish of malevolent intent in the narrow defeat by Ireland.
The 31-year-old tight-head prop is consistently of outsize value to his team, and has only grown in stature since shedding almost two stones and starting to take nutrition and conditioning seriously in the wake of what at one stage he feared might be a career-ending injury in 2021.
Ferrari ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee while playing for Benetton against Zebre in a festive derby and spent almost 14 months away from the pitch. He looks back on that time as a blessing, the moment when it all clicked as to how he could fulfil the potential first identified when he emerged from the Milanese club game.
Ferrari was in no mood to back down against McCarthy in Italy’s 20-13 defeat against Ireland in Dublin
BEN BRADY/INPHO/SHUTTERSTOCK
Ever since that gear change in how he lives and works, his dynamism, endurance and all-round effectiveness have increased in inverse proportion to his waistline.
“That year I really sorted myself out,” he recalls. “Before I was a player who didn’t care about what he ate or how he worked in the gym. But that injury taught me so much about taking care of the physical side of things and really helped me progress.
“I lost a load of weight without losing any of my strength, I learned to work in a certain way and to give importance to the quality and quantity of the food I ate. Of course it was a tough experience to be away from the field for so long, especially when there was uncertainty about whether I would ever play again.
“But I’m happy because from a dark moment I was able to find something positive that I have carried forward for the rest of my career. Don’t get me wrong — I can still put my food away, but I pick my moments now.”
Ferrari’s dynamism, endurance and all-round effectiveness have increased for club and country
TIMOTHY ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES
Indeed, Ferrari loves nothing more than playing chef for his mates at a summer BBQ (“red meat, roast potatoes, loads of oil”) and plans to open a restaurant when he retires. But in the here and now, it is in the set scrum where he is really dining out.
So central was Ferrari to the 18-15 opening-day win over the Scots that he ended up that rarity: a tight-head prop being chosen by the broadcasters as their player of the match.
As he went through his pitchside interview post-match, his team-mates gathered round to chant “the king, the king”, while from the stands a banner made its way onto the field.
“Saint Ferrari, push for us,” was the message beneath a mock-up of the not-so-big man in beatific pose.
The Scottish scrum was backpedalling all afternoon in the Roman rain. Pierre Schoeman, the visiting loose-head prop and a British & Irish Lion, was shown up to the extent that he was dropped for the Calcutta Cup, with Ferrari’s signature moment arriving shortly before half-time when the Scots were marched off their own ball.
Ferrari was named man of the match after the win over Scotland
GIAMPIERO SPOSITO/FEDERUGBY VIA GETTY IMAGES
As described by Will Collier last week, the bugle for the eight-man shove was sounded by Manuel Zuliani, the brilliant flanker, roaring “Itaaaaaalia!”
“We’ve started to put pressure on the opposition ball, and the call is the responsibility of the open-side, the one behind the tight-head prop,” Ferrari confirms.
“He gives the call and then it’s everyone’s job to squeeze. At the end of the day there is no big secret, no particular technique, it’s just about everyone going low and working together in a single direction.
“Moments like that particular scrum gives confidence not only to the forwards, but the backs as well, I think. It helps them understand and appreciate the work we do. They don’t necessarily see it as very important, but the scrum can give such a psychological lift to the whole team.
“Above all, it can instil a bit of doubt in the opposing team. At this level of the game, the scrum can still be decisive. Against Scotland, every single forward did an exceptional job on a day when some real old-style rugby was required in those conditions.”
Scotland’s pack disintegrates under pressure during appalling conditions in Rome
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Ferrari operates a ferocious tag-team with the Northampton loose-head Danilo Fischetti, but is particularly close to his Benetton team-mate Mirco Spagnolo, who has impressed off the bench in the No17 shirt in both Six Nations matches to date.
Ferrari himself has played Test rugby at loose-head under both Conor O’Shea and Franco Smith, but the vast majority of his 71 caps have come on the other side of the front row, where his first opponents were the great Tendai Mtawarira and Steven Kitshoff of South Africa.
That was way back in 2016, and the Azzurri — with cap number 666 Ferrari performing with suitably demonic intent — claimed their first and so far only victory against the Boks.
“They’re my favourite team after Italy, because of the value they place on the scrum,” Ferrari says. “Our front-row group has really matured together. We live as a small family within a big family. We are always together. For me, that’s the most important thing in building a dominant scrum: to be together on the pitch every day, talking about scrums and only scrums.
“We are always together: for lunch, for dinner, maybe not for breakfast, because there are people who wake up a little later, like me. We work very hard, we do a lot of analysis and we are very close, particularly me and Mirco.
“We both like the same things: the scrum, eating and the gym. Last Saturday against Ireland, he showed things that I don’t think we’ve ever seen in the Six Nations, so I’m really proud of him. He can become one of the top players in Europe. Fischio is also a world-class loose-head, so it’s great to have this kind of competition in the team. We have a lot of fun together, but we push each other really hard.”
Ferrari’s greater mobility has helped him around the park, where he now is wont to launch into the sort of ferocious hit that Garry Ringrose’s ribs might still be feeling even a week after the game.
On Sunday, it is France in Lille, where Italy had to settle for a draw two years ago after a farcical last-gasp farrago saw the ball fall off the tee as Paolo Garbisi prepared to strike what would have been a match-winning penalty while French water carriers loitered in his eyeline and home defenders launched an illegal charge.
“France are a very particular, very singular team, not too structured,” Ferrari says. “It is the final test of these first three rounds, with an even stronger opponent. I love going up against teams with a bigger scrum, because you really get to test what you are made of.”
And a little bit less is going a very long way for Ferrari and Italy these days.
France v Italy
Six Nations
Sunday, 3.10pm
TV ITV