Varney a true blue in any language
CALL him Stefano. His Italian team-mates do.
Stephen Varney might have been born in Pembrokeshire and speak better Welsh than he does Italian but Gloucester’s teenage scrum-half is all in for the Azzurri at Twickenham today.
Rivers run deep and for all his West Wales accent, the 19-year-old is a true blue by virtue of a prisoner-of-war bloodline.
Varney’s greatgrandfather Carlo was captured by the British Army in North Africa and brought to a POW camp in Henllan near Newcastle Emlyn.
He stayed after the war and was joined by his wife and daughter Adriana, Varney’s grandmother, who fed and watered him in the best Italian traditions.
Varney learnt his rugby from his father Adrian – a tough Neath flanker – but grew up in a household where his mum Valeria supported Italy on Six Nations weekends.
When he was called up for the first time by Italy coach Franco Smith, above, last season, the culture was a natural fit; the language less so.
“The calls are in Italian on the field,” said Varney.
“That’s the easy part. It’s tougher sitting around in a group talking Italian but that will come with time.
“Franco talks to the group in Italian and me personally in English because it’s a tough language to learn when you’re not around it all the time but now I’m here I’m picking up more. It’s coming along.”
Committing to Italy represents a kind of masochism in the Six Nations where they have not won a game since 2015.
After a 50-10 hiding by France in Rome seven days ago, that is unlikely to change at Twickenham.
Italy are as green as a Welsh valley with an average of only 15 caps per man compared to England’s 51.
At half-back, the key decision-making area, they are even less experienced, with Varney partnered with 20-year-old fly-half-Paolo Garbisi.
He said: “Our team is very young. It’s exciting. Part of learning is making mistakes but we’re learning a lot. “There’s a lot of us young guys came up from the Under-20s and Franco showing confidence in us is great. I think he’s looking to the next World Cup.
“These Six Nations games are about getting experience and by the time of the World Cup we will have a few caps under our belt so we can do well.
“We were disappointed with our performance against France.We attacked well, only to lack execution at critical times but our defence was poor. That has been a big work-on for us this week.”
Call it the naivety of youth but Varney believes Italy have a shot at a first win over England.
“England play a different style of rugby to the French,” he added. “Scotland applied pressure on their kicking game and we will look to do the same.”