Jake Polledri is pleased to be a part of Conor O’Shea’s Italy squad ahead of the visit to Wales on Sunday.
The Gloucester flanker was named in O’Shea’s 34-man squad at the start of the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations and has earned a recall after returning to play for his club.
The 22-year-old has represented Italy Under-20s in the past and is looking forward to being involved in the senior squad once more.
He said: “I got into the training squad to begin with and to come back here now shows that it’s going quite well.
“I’m just glad to get involved and learn everything – the new systems, the new calls and obviously the language as well.
“That’s all going to be coming in the next couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to it massively.”
Italy have suffered three defeats from three games in this year’s Championship, losing at home to England before defeats away in Cardiff and Marseille.
Despite failing to put any points on the board yet, the Italians have scored seven tries in those games and Polledri revealed there is optimism among the players.
He said: “I think there is still quite a positive feeling in the team.
“It’s a massive long-term goal in terms of what we’re doing here and we learn every game.
“We want to put ourselves into these competitions against the best teams, to learn what they do and see what we can build on.”
Conor O’Shea’s men have been studying the Welsh lineout in training and while that kind of analysis is important,
Polledri revealed that their own game is the main focus.
He said: “We will see what we can do to bring anything they haven’t seen before, but we’re just focusing on us really and aiming to bring some of that tempo and speed that hopefully they can’t deal with.”
