After Ireland picked up a convincing win in Rome on Saturday afternoon, James Downey has his concerns about the place of Italy within the Six Nations format.
A first win of the tournament for Andy Farrell's team, Italy were left largely helpless as Ireland ran up an eventual winning score of 48-10 in Rome.
The latest in a series of heavy defeats for Franco Smith's men, James Downey has his doubts that the Azzurri will ever play a meaningful role in the Six Nations.
"This is a conversation that comes up every year," he remarked to OTB Sports in his post-match analysis, before specifying the areas in which Italy struggle against better opponents. "They gave away 20 penalties today and you're not going to win an international like that.
"In the last couple of weeks they have shown glimpses that they're improving as an attacking side but they just don't know how to win."
On a losing streak in the tournament that stretches back to their 2015 defeat of Scotland, Downey identified little reason to believe that Italy are making any sustained progress.
"I heard one of the commentators talking today about it being Carlo Canna's 50th international," he said, "and he hasn't won one.
"To play 50 games and not win one, they just cannot see out games. They can occasionally come close and held teams for 50, 60 minutes, but in that final 20 they just cannot see out a game.
"Bar the one-off games they produce across the years, a potential banana skin... Ireland have proven today that they are just not a very good side."
As they seemingly move further back from the pack year on year, Downey speculated what might be the best course of action for Italy and the Six Nations going forward.
"I'd like to be positive and say, 'Yeah, they might turn a corner,'" he suggested, "but how many times have we said that?
"It is very frustrating that they're just the whipping boys every year but what do we do? Perhaps they should look at Georgia, expand the Six Nations? It is a different day's discussion."
You can watch back James Downey's assessment of today's clash in full here
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