Major honours
Italy formed its rugby federation in 1928 and spent decades in Europe's second tier before joining the Five Nations as its sixth team in 2000, launching the Six Nations era. It made an immediate splash, beating Scotland 34-20 in Rome on debut, but spent nearly two decades afterward stuck at the bottom of the table, and remains the only founding member of the competition never to have reached a World Cup quarterfinal despite playing in all ten tournaments. The turning point came in Cardiff in March 2022, when a last-minute try from Edoardo Padovani beat Wales 22-21, ending a 36-match Six Nations winless run, and that November Italy beat Australia 28-27 in Florence. In the 2024 championship, it beat both Scotland and Wales and drew with France for its best-ever campaign, two wins and a draw. Number 8 Sergio Parisse holds the team's cap record with 142, and fly-half Diego Dominguez scored more than 1,000 Test points.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
The Latin derby against France is the match Italy wants most to win, while fixtures against Wales and Scotland have long been must-win battles to escape last place.