{"id":457232,"date":"2026-03-04T15:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457232\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T15:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:01:12","slug":"garbisi-hits-italy-with-brutal-reality-check-amid-talk-of-historic-england-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457232\/","title":{"rendered":"Garbisi hits Italy with brutal reality check amid talk of historic England win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/italy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italy<\/a> fly-half <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/paolo-garbisi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paolo Garbisi<\/a> has said that he does not see this weekend as a \u201cvery big opportunity\u201d for his side to earn their first-ever win over England.<\/p>\n<p>While both sides head into round four of the Guinness <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/six-nations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Six Nations<\/a> with one win to their names, they will walk out at Rome\u2019s Stadio Olimpico in completely different spirits.<\/p>\n<p>The Azzurri backed up their first round victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/scotland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland<\/a> with a valiant display against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ireland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland<\/a> in Dublin, which they could have won, before falling to title favourites France. England, meanwhile, appear to be in total free fall with back-to-back losses to Scotland and Ireland, having entered the tournament as France\u2019s main rivals for the Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Despite boasting an unblemished record against Italy in the 32 matches they have played, England\u2019s record has never appeared under greater threat. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> boss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/steve-borthwick-conducts-mass-overhaul-with-6-england-players-axed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Borthwick has made a total of nine changes to his starting XV in the hope of maintaining that record<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Italy\u2019s playmaker Garbisi has not been swept up in the chatter of a potential home victory in Rome, however, and only needed to recall recent history to highlight the task that awaits his team-mates against what he still deems to be \u201ca very good team\u201d despite their recent dip in form.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/809.png.webp.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> Italy <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772636472_46_804.png.webp.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> England <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/england-vs-italy\/?g=947115\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we all need to remember last year we lost by 40 points at Twickenham [47-24], so we feel we\u2019re playing a very, very good team, very high quality players,\u201d the 25-year-old said when joining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=44Y37W7Xfqc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Rugby Pod<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I think I don\u2019t see something that is different this year. They still are a very good team, a powerful side, so I don\u2019t see it as a very big opportunity, to be honest. If we execute well and if we prepare well, I think we could have a good game, but I don\u2019t see a very big opportunity there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy fly-half Paolo Garbisi has said that he does not see this weekend as a \u201cvery big opportunity\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}