The squad’s regular warmup match of touch rugby between the forward and backs almost ended in a punch up between burly prop Martin Castrogiovanni and Riccardo Bocchino after the reserve flyhalf put his hand in his teammate’s face.

Castrogiovanni shaped to punch Bocchino before backing down as teammates intervened.

The players apologized to each other and captain Sergio Parisse says the “positive sign is that we are all tense before this game ... generally when we are tense like this we play very well.”