Back in the day, Italy could expect to win a Test match against front-line international rugby sides, only ad ogni morte di papa, every time the pope died.

Not any more.

The Six Nations is no longer the Five Nations One Also Ran. For in the last decade and a bitty, Italy has proved itself more than capable of regularly beating the likes of Wales and Scotland, and have beaten both France and Ireland – not to mention Australia, just three years ago.

On their day, and most particularly in recent times, they can play in a manner to make one think that the one Pope who played rugby, Pope John Paul II, must now be pulling a few strings as a heaven local, on the very game they play in heaven. In sum, this was never a “gimme” game, and an automatic lifting of the Wallaby stats for the year. It was always going to be a testing Test and Italy showed from the first they were here to play, more than

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