Italy's resurgence has a Guinness flavour

This is the message from the Autumn internationals - and it's what matters the most. Indeed, Tests against Samoa, Argentina and South Africa finally offered promise to Jacques Brunel and his staff and Italy are now back on their feet, ready to keep the dream of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals alive next year.

French coach Brunel knows better than everybody else that what he is trying to achieve looks like a "mission impossible", but after three weeks of battles against some of the most tough teams on the planet, his side gave him a lot of cheer.

Since the Rugby World Cup's inception in 1987, Italy, involved in every edition, have never succeeded in making the last eight and next year in England they will have to find a way past France and Ireland to reach that goal.

But the Azzurri can now look to the future with far more confidence than they had just a couple of months ago, and that's primarily thanks to the GUINNESS PRO12.

In November Italy embraced its star skipper Sergio Parisse again and a few key members of the RWC15 group such as Benetton Treviso's Alessandro Zanni, Simone Favaro, Luca Morisi and Francesco Minto, who were forced to miss most of the past season through injuries. Brunel also introduced Zebre summer signings Kelly Haimona and Samuela Vunisa to the international stage and the response has been terrific.

The performance of the 'Italian Maori' Haimona, who has jumped from playing in the country's third division less than two years ago to a showdown with the Springboks, and the brilliant contribution of exciting midfield partners Morisi-Campagnaro, helped Italy overcome the summer crisis sparked by losses to Fiji, Samoa and Japan.

Indeed, thanks to their weekly duties in the GUINNESS PRO12, players arrived in the Italian camp in peak condition and were well prepared for the standard required, helping Italian rugby to fill the gap left by the huge number of players that left the country in the off-season.

Italy returned from this summer's Pacific Tour with consecutive losses number seven, eight and nine, with just four tries scored (three of which were penalties) and 66 points against in three games.

That underlined the defensive troubles shown by the team at the Six Nations, where Italy conceded 46 points to Joe Schmidt's Ireland and 52 to England in the last two weekends of the tournament.

But the excellent work from the Italian back-row and the unprecedented efficacy away from the breakdown of Brunel's young midfield has brought the Azzurri back onto the right path.

Parisse and co conceded only 22 points to the mighty Springboks and what's more, only a last-minute try from speedy Toulon superstar Bryan Habana - converted by young jewel Handré Pollard - stopped Italy from recording their best-ever performance against South Africa.

And with the 22-6 loss, Brunel wrote his name into the history books for the lowest number of points conceded to the Springboks in the country's history (the old record was a 26-0 defeat in Cape Town back in 2008).

The plays of Haimona also helped a struggling attack find some fire as the man from Rotorua offered his coach a flair option.

His foot converted Italian possession into vital points and helped the team partially solve their historically problematic tactical game while his big body gave the Azzurri solutions in the 10-12 channel, in addition to some unprecedented aggression with ball in hand without the expense of a solid defence.

Thanks to the New Zealand-born playmaker's contribution, Italy overturned the worrying tendency that saw the team score a meagre 12.6 points per game in the last Six Nations, followed by an even worse 12.3 ppg in the June test, bringing the average up to a positive 16.

Those figures are still far away from the 23.6 points per game scored in November of last year, but are a lot more positive if taken with their improved defence (12 months ago Italy conceded more than 33 points per game against Australia, Fiji and Argentina).

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