And, perhaps more importantly, the Frenchman guided them back into the world’s top 10 which earned them a place in Group D alongside RBS Six Nations rivals France and Ireland for the 2015 showpiece.

But most importantly for Brunel, despite not playing well against Tonga in their first autumn international, Italy managed to grind out the result – a trait he believes they need to start learning quickly if they are to improve their world ranking.

"Our goal for the autumn international series was to keep growing in our play, trying to impose our ideas and stay focused on the selected game plan for the entire game," said Brunel.

“We know we had a difficult period ahead as we had to face some tough teams like the All Blacks and the Wallabies, but I guess at the end of it all we should be satisfied by the way we progressed during last month.

"We started with a bad performance against Tonga, when we lost too much ball and failed to control the match as we planned.

“But on the other hand we needed to win it and we won, and that's something we should take as a big plus, because the ability to deliver in terms of wins is something Italy need to develop quickly if it want to climb in the rankings.

"We are happy to have avoided nations such as New Zealand,South Africa and Australia, but to advance to the quarter-finals we need to beat top eight teams in the rankings, and that's a tough task.

"We will have a little help by facing both teams in the RBS Six Nations every year, but our chance to grab the historic qualification is down to us and our way to develop our game in the next three years.

“If we don't keep progressing the way we did during the last twelve months than we have no chance to advance to the quarter-finals."