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Italy star Sergio Parisse looks set to end his long Test career in Rome during this season\u2019s Guinness Six Nations Championship.<\/p>\nItaly star Sergio Parisse looks set to end his long Test career in Rome during this season\u2019s Guinness Six Nations Championship.<\/p>\n
And the 36-year-old has confirmed that he will not play the entire tournament, which begins for the Azzurri against Wales in Cardiff on February 1.<\/p>\n
It will leave Italy boss Franco Smith to find a new captain as he prepares for another Six Nations campaign.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s two home games during this season\u2019s tournament are against Scotland on February 22 and England three weeks later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Smith my desire to end my international career in Rome in front of my family, my friends and our fans,\u201d Parisse said in an interview with Corriere dello Sport, and reported by www.onrugby.it<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe agrees that I deserve another game, that I cannot end with that match cancelled by the typhoon (Italy\u2019s final World Cup pool game against New Zealand in Toyota City, Japan in October).<\/p>\n \u201cI will face Scotland, England or both, but I will certainly not play the entire Six Nations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe national team needs to develop other players with leadership skills.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were permanently in a group, even more if I were a captain, I would occupy certain spaces. Instead, it is time for others to take my place.\u201d<\/p>\n Number eight Parisse, who has won 142 caps, made his Italy debut against the All Blacks in 2002.<\/p>\n Only two players \u2013 New Zealand World Cup-winning captain Richie McCaw and Wales skipper Alun Wyn Jones \u2013 have made more international appearances than him.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>