Aironi finished bottom of the Celtic League this season yet no less than nine of their players were part of the national squad which defeated Scotland 13-6 in this year’s RBS 6 Nations.

But aside from the marquee names, like wing Giovanbattista Venditti, who have made their break-through this year, Moretti highlighted Aironi’s young squad players and marked them out to follow their team-mates into the national side.

“The principle objective of the franchise is to grow players for the national side and I believe the results of that are obvious,” Moretti said.

“Let’s not forget the debutants we’ve thrown in there for just a few games either, like (Antonio) Denti, (Filippo) Ferrarini and (Giorgio) Bronzini.”

Aironi have beaten Treviso, Edinburgh, Connacht and Munster in the league this season and Moretti insists he’ll be looking back on the franchise’s second year in a positive light.

“We fixed ourselves on the objective of getting 24 points and we almost did it ending up with 22,” he added.

“Results wise it went better given that we got four victories with respect to just the one in the first year.

“But above all in the first year we played right through to the end on few occasions while this year we were able to win three games more.”