Brunel brings new attacking Italy to 6 Nations rugby

While predecessor Nick Mallett concentrated on building a solid and competitive team, Jacques Brunel is hoping to develop a more attacking Italy this season. The Azzurri begin their Six Nations campaign with a trip to Paris to face France on Saturday and already the players can feel a new wave sweeping through the team. Frenchman Brunel has a reputation for getting the most out of sometimes limited resources, having guided Perpignan to the Top 14 title in 2009 and little Colomiers to European Challenge Cup success in 1998. In order to fulfil his assertion that Italy will be a top six team in the world within four years, he intends to start attacking opponents. And that includes favourites and World Cup finalists France in their own back yard. "What's true is that the French team is strong and will fight to win the tournament, that's their aim every time," said Brunel. "We have a different objective which is to find cohesion between the new staff and the team. "We want to play in a different way (to the past) and to have different amibitions." Brunel's new appraoch has not been lost on the players, despite the short time he's had to work with them. "There's a big difference although it's still early to say because it's only been two weeks," said scrum-half Edoardo Gori."Already the training is different with two training sessions a day; one in the morning, then a pause for the team meeting to study our opponents, and then training in the afternoon. "Our style of play is very different and we're trying to learn Jacques's concept and then put that into practice on the pitch. "It will be very difficult to show everything against France but we'll try. "Mallett was very concentrated on defence, which of course was one of our strengths last year, but without an attack you can't win so Jacques is concentrating more on attack. "We'll see how it goes." The 21-year-old Gori is part of a youthful looking backline picked by Brunel, even though he is third choice at his club Treviso, behind Tobias Botes and Fabio Semezato, both starting on the bench at the Stade de France. But Brunel says that is because he wants to use Gori's speed of distribution. "That's the decision for this match but the spirit we want in this position is a player who is quick getting to the breakdown to speed up play," said the Frenchman. "Gori has this. Last year he had a different role nearer to the breakdown, he had a lot of work to do and it was difficult to get this speed. "Our mission is to give more confidence to the backs and a different balance to the team." That different balance is greater pace and energy which should be given by the young players Brunel has selected. As well as Gori, who has nine caps, uncapped 21-year-old Giovanbattista Venditti will line up on the right wing while Tommaso Benvenuti, 21, and Alberto Sgarbi, 25 (both with 12 caps), are the centre pairing. "This can give us freshness and a lot of desire to play," enthused Gori. "Last year we didn't play much in the backs and played a lot in the forwards, which is also our strength. "But if we improve our backs and keep as strong in the pack then we'll be a better team."