If you thought that it was impossible to ramp up the magnitude of a first-ever foray into the Guinness PRO14 Final Series, then how about adding the perceived weight of a nation? A place in the history books is already secured for Dean Budd’s Benetton, who have become the first Italian team ever to reach the quarter-finals, as they travel to Thomond Park to lock horns with Munster in the quarter-finals. In Round 21, Kieran Crowley’s troops defeated rivals Zebre to seal their qualification and when they bid for glory against the Munstermen, you wouldn’t bet against a few Italian supporters from further afield than Treviso rooting for the team in green and white. Granted, the Zebre faithful may not have exactly been supportive as Benetton ran out 25-11 winners at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi late last month but Azzurri international Budd is keenly aware that his side are the protagonists of a landmark moment for Italian rugby. “It’s amazing for Italian rugby. It’s certainly a step in the right direction of changing perceptions of how Italian rugby’s viewed,” said the 32-year-old. “We get kicked around like a beaten dog most weeks, so hopefully this is the start of many journeys for Italian teams into finals rugby and hopefully, we can create some momentum at the top for the national team, too. “We are certainly only thinking about ourselves if I’m going to be honest. “We’re doing it for us at the end of the day but it would be great to be proud of Italian rugby and change people’s perceptions. “Hopefully, it’s the first step in the right direction for Italy.” Rightfully so, Benetton made the most of their qualification, toasting the fine achievement of a third-placed finish in Conference B behind Ulster and Leinster, and ahead of the likes of the Scarlets and Edinburgh Rugby. Spirits are sky-high in Treviso and Budd, who has 20 Test caps for Italy, revealed that he and his teammates never shied away from the potential slice of history that moved ever-further into their clutches as the weeks passed by. The Benetton lock said: “It’s quite overwhelming, really. A lot of us worked so hard to be here and for so long, and it’s almost a relief to have finally kicked the monkey off the shoulder, and delivered the goods that we always knew we could. “The fear of losing [to Zebre] was more motivating than anything else. “We would have kicked ourselves for years to come if we would have choked there, so it’s absolute relief and then it’s excitement and jubilation. “In the changing rooms afterwards, we had Luciano Benetton in there, who you may be lucky if you see once a year, so for him to be in the changing rooms with us was a pretty surreal feeling. “Qualification is something we were very conscious of. We didn’t want it lurking as the elephant in the room, so we weekly spoke about what we needed to do. “At the end of the day, what we needed to do was perform and do what we’ve done all season. “It was good for us to confront what we needed to do. It gave us the peace of mind that everything was still in our own hands and we had to just keep doing what we could do.” And the template for an upset is there. Budd believes that his team enter their clash with Munster as underdogs – they were also beaten 37-28 at home by Johann van Graan’s troops in Round 20. But he draws huge inspiration from Connacht’s 20-10 victory over Leinster in the 2016 Grand Final as Benetton prepare to shoot for the stars in Limerick. “No-one can guarantee anything. No-one is expecting us to go there and beat Munster, so we’ve nothing to lose,” added Budd. “We’ve been running around like headless chickens in training and we’re going to need a little bit more direction if we’re to get it done. “But the boys are pumped for it and if we can harness that in the right way, who knows what could happen. “I think it was a good thing that we played them recently. Even though we lost that game, we still look back and take a load of confidence out of it. “We knew that we could have been better. We performed for 50 or 60 minutes of the game but the boys know that you’ve got to play 80 minutes of rugby against a championship team like Munster. “I think that was a good game to have. It’s fresh in the mind. “I personally look at Connacht beating Leinster in the final two or three years ago – no-one would have ever picked that. “History’s proved that these things happen and we’re going to need to be at our best.”
