WHEN THEY WERE KINGS
Italy’s rugby status is under serious threat but there was a time in the 1990s when they were a match for anyone… especially Ireland
FNobody profited more from the chaos in Irish rugby than the Azzurri
OR those of us of a certain age, Sports Stadium will always evoke dewy-eyed nostalgia. The quintessentially Irish sporting smorgasbord was a staple of Saturday afternoons growing up, where handball could lead in to rallying, horse racing was followed by AIL or League of Ireland, and all seamlessly linked by the likes of Brendan O’Reilly.
On the Saturday before Christmas in 1997, the programme went on the air for the final time. After 25 years, it was going to be a bittersweet day. In the end, though, the broadcast became memorable for all the wrong reasons as they were covering a rugby match from Bologna that has long lived in Irish rugby infamy.
If Sports Stadium recalls a different time, then check out this – Italy’s 37-22 win that afternoon was the Azzurri’s third successive victory over Ireland and the second time they had beaten them in the calendar year. Different times indeed.
They had also taken the scalps of France and Scotland, but the dominance over Ireland was one of the main reasons that the Five Nations had to finally relent to the pressure from the Italian rugby federation and let them in.
Italy were a serious outfit back then, with everything revolving around the genius of their playmaking out-half, the Argentine-born Diego Dominguez, who scored a remarkable 27 points that dark day in Bologna.
Italy’s place in the competition has come under renewed threat this week, given their lamentable losing streak of 34 straight defeats, with talk of South Africa replacing them in 2025. Thus, it is timely to cast the mind back and see how exactly they forced the stuffy suits and alickadoos to take them seriously enough to turn five into six.
The shop had been closed since 1910 when France gained entry – there was a brief suggestion in the 1980s that Romania were strong enough to join when they were taking the scalps of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but Union officials were sticking rigidly to their amateur principles at the time and the Oaks were, more or less, professional. And, besides, Bucharest in the spring isn’t exactly Rome.
The wins over Ireland were held up as Exhibit A that the Italians could hold their own in the championship. But, of course, the mid to late-1990s was a chaotic time for Irish rugby. It was a lost decade, when the IRFU and players were supposed to be taking the plunge into the uncertainty of professionalism but did so with the most amateur of mindsets. And nobody profited more from that chaos than the Azzurri. Both Nick Popplewell and Conor O’Shea have previously told the story of the entire squad standing at length outside a hotel in Treviso in May 1995, waiting for the bus to take them to their World Cup warm-up before the realisation gradually dawned that no bus was coming. ‘We basically had two choices; either make a run for the stadium or thumb a lift,’ the former prop recalled. ‘We were trying to hail taxis, a few of us were frantically stopping cars to see if they would take us to the stadium.’
It was hardly surprising that Gerry Murphy’s Ireland side lost that day as Italy, inspired by Dominguez, romped home 22-12, the start of the three-game winning streak. Less than two years later, on a wintry January day in Dublin, the Azzurri arrived in Lansdowne Road and once again outclassed Ireland, scoring four tries, with Dominguez helping himself to 22 points in a 37-29 win. Italy’s superiority at the time wasn’t all about the magic of Dominguez. He had his talented henchman Alessandro Troncon beside him at scrumhalf, while Marcello Cuttita was always a threat on the wing and remains his country’s record try-scorer with 25 touchdowns.
Cuttita’s brother, Massimo, was part of a powerful pack that had the talented Carlo Cecchinato at the back as an excellent No 8.
Brian Ashton took Ireland to Bologna in 1997, still trying to find the right formula for a side that had received their second successive Five Nations wooden spoon that spring.
The face of Ashton never did fit. He arrived with big ideas, one of which was to trawl the English Premiership for players who could play for Ireland. Indeed, one of the main criticisms against him was that he favoured players who were based across the Irish Sea, as he was himself.
This philosophy of unearthing Irish-eligible players came to a head in Bologna in the form of one-cap wonders like Dylan O’Grady (left) and David Erskine, who were both flung straight into the backrow against Italy’s experienced and powerful pack.
O’Grady’s solitary cap has come to define the disarray of Irish rugby at that time. Plucked from being a bouncer in Manchester to becoming an international flanker, he would later be jailed for drug offences. Erskine, who also played for Sale, won three caps under his compatriot
but also never played for Ireland after the Bologna debacle. Neither did scrum-half Niall Hogan or Kevin Nowlan at full-back
O’Grady and Erskine were being selected ahead of the likes of home favourites Eddie Halvey, Alan Quinlan and Anthony Foley, adding to the disharmony in the dressing room, while the frosty relationship between Ashton and team manager Pat Whelan added to the unease.
‘It was a strange time for Irish rugby,’ Darragh O’Mahony, who was on the wing that day, remembered a few years ago.
‘It was in a period when Ireland were moving from the amateur era to professionalism and not doing it very well. There was non-stop and savage criticism from the Irish media because Ashton was seen as an Englishman who had no time for the AIL. It was all a bit chaotic.’
And yet that team in Bologna included some greats of the Irish game. Keith Wood is now regarded as one the finest hookers rugby has seen while Denis Hickie, David Humphreys, Malcolm O’Kelly and Eric Miller had superb Ireland careers.
Perhaps Italy were lulled into believing they were better than they were because Ireland were so hapless and chaotic, but they got off to a brilliant Six Nations start a few years later with a resounding win over Scotland.
However, that proved to be a false dawn, the last sting in the tail from the great Italy team who dominated Ireland.
‘You have to put those results against Italy in context,’ Hickie pointed out a couple of years back. ‘Italy had six or seven world-class players then, and their attitude was also world class. They had no fear of us and they had their best years between 1995 and ’97, when they not only beat us,
Scotland and France but also ran Australia very close.’
It seems a different age now. South Africa potentially taking Italy’s spot led to much outrage on social media last week and, if the Azzurri hadn’t quite been feeling the love over recent results, the past few days altered that perception.
More than two decades on, Italy are still trying to find their place in rugby’s world order, but it is worth remembering it took France almost 50 years before they won their first Championship in 1959. It was always going to take time, even if they may never return to the glory days when Dominguez weaved his magic and they had Ireland’s number.
With Ireland being so hapless, maybe Italy felt they were better than they were