MARTIN PAGE-RELO

The Italy nine explains why playing in Rome is high on his Six Nations wish list

-  Mark Palmer

ITALIAN RUGBY has been in thrall to Ange Capuozzo for the past couple of years, and it turns out that Azzurri supporters have the elfin attacker to thank for Martin Page-Relo too.

Before moving to Lyon last summer, the Livewire Nine was at Toulouse, where team-mates included not only Antoine Dupont but Capuozzo, the French-born full-back who qualifies to wear the (other) blue shirt through grandparents from Naples.

It came up in conversation that Page-Relo also has Italian heritage – his maternal grandparents, André and Leonilda, are from the Lombardy village of Vertova – and when Capuozzo dropped this into a chat with Kieran Crowley, the erstwhile Italy coach, the 25-year-old was called up to train towards the end of the 2022 Six Nations and then the World Cup.

Page-Relo came off the bench against Namibia and New Zealand. This Six Nations he’ll compete with Stephen Varney, Alessandro Garbisi and Alessandro Fusco for a spot under the fresh leadership of new boss Gonzalo Quesada.

“I didn’t play age-grade international rugby for either Italy or France, but I did have a year with the France sevens team,” Page-Relo explains. “I was friends with Ange from playing with him at Toulouse for that last year I was there and he said he’d speak to Kieran to tell him I was eligible.