Palmer lifts the lid on his first season with Benetton Treviso

Palmer joined from Gloucester over the summer and has shown that, at 36 years of age, he still has a lot to offer after making 12 league appearances so far for the Italians.

How are you enjoying Italy? Was it easy to settle in?

"I have enjoyed living in Italy, Treviso is a very nice town. I have found the Italian people very friendly and everybody at Benetton Rugby made me feel very welcome."

If you wanted to take stock of your first season in Italy, what would be your thoughts?

"I think that there is no hiding from the fact that the season has been disappointing in terms of our results on the field.

"However we are now seeing an improvement in the team's performance which has led to us winning our last two matches. Hopefully the hard work the boys do on the training field will bring continual improvements and we can finish the season strongly."

Thanks to you, we are doing a good job in the lineout, what would you say about that?

"I am responsible for coaching the lineout and it is an area where I feel we have performed well all season.

"I have put a system in place, but the success of the lineout is due to the hard work which the forwards do in training and the time spent by each individual studying their roles, making sure that they do their job correctly."

How is the team's mood after the two wins against Cardiff Blues and Newport Gwent Dragons? Has anything changed in the locker room?

"Obviously we are all delighted to have won those two games and there has been a real boost to the team morale.

"We also realise that there are still lots of areas for us to improve and that we must keep working hard for the rest of the season in order to continue winning."

You are a player with a lot of experience so in your opinion, what do you think about the work being done by the team at the moment? What do you think about your many young teammates, and what advice would you give?

"I think that at Benetton Rugby we have a lot of young players with a huge amount of potential. I am very happy to see how much the young guys are developing.

"Thanks to good coaching and their own efforts and desire to learn and improve as rugby players, we now have a group of young players who are capable of performing at the required level and also much greater strength in depth in our squad."

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