Italy captain’s all time great team talk at U20 Championship goes viral
If anyone wanted a sign that 20-year-old flanker David Odiase is Italy’s captain in the making, take a look at his team talk ahead of Italy U20’s opening World Championship match against Argentina U20 on Saturday at Paarl Gimnasium.
The Italy U20 captain produced a team talk for the ages in the changing room, which was so rousing that it could have inspired any random person off the street to come and represent Italy.
While the talk maybe did not produce the result that was desired, as Italy lost 43-15, we can only imagine how much larger that scoreline could have been had Odiase not inspired his team in the way he did. Something similar was surely produced ahead of their second match of the tournament against South Africa on Tuesday, although the speech hit its mark the second time round as Italy produced an upset against the hosts, winning 34-26.
“We did great things during the Six Nations,” Odiase opened with in his team talk. “We did great things. Let’s look each other in the eyes. It’s us. It’s us! We represent our nation! We represent our values! We came here to fight for the respect of our nation! And from the first minute of this tournament to the end we fight together. We are 30 Italian soldiers fighting for our home country! Never again will they disrespect our peers! Never again will they doubt us! Never again will they doubt Giovanni! Never again will they doubt YOU! Because we are a family. I fight for your family and you fight for mine! I fight for you!”
Take a look at the team talk here:
Italy now face Georgia U20 (who are beating Argentina U20 at the time of writing) on Tuesday in the hope of qualifying for the semi-final the following Sunday.
