Polledri prepares to banish World Cup woes
Forward says experience with Italy will help him in Gloucester’s European tilt, writes Katie Rowan
Jake Polledri’s preparations for Gloucester’s Champions Cup opening fixture against Toulouse this evening may differ from the majority of his team-mates in one key area. Shedding the few extra pounds he put on while representing Italy at the World Cup due to what the back row likes to call the “much more carby diet” enjoyed by his international side.
It is with a hearty laugh that the 24-year-old describes how the club’s nutritionist will have been paying him extra attention “checking my skin fold and fat percentages”. Polledri is not the Cherry and White’s sole Italy international, as Callum Braley joined him.
The life of a professional athlete means that looking forward rather than dwelling on the past is the usual focus but Polledri, who four years ago was in the wilderness having been dropped by Bristol when he was 19, cannot help but reel off endless facts about Japan, including how the country “has more vending machines than anywhere else in the world” and “uses more wood from the Amazon because of the chopsticks”.
Yet despite these cheerful recollections, Polledri, a son of Bristol who qualified to play for Italy through his paternal grandparents, explains his frustration when watching the World Cup final while back on club duty due to the Azzurris’ final pool game against New Zealand being cancelled over Typhoon Hagibis. “I wasn’t expecting Italy to be in the final, but I had this feeling of disappointment because of what happened with the last game being cancelled,” he says. “I felt like I had missed that energy the Japanese brought to the tournament and I missed being out there. At the same time, I was happy to be back at Gloucester watching the game with my friends, but I kept thinking it is going to be another four years.”
Polledri was particularly saddened for those team-mates coming to the end of their careers, such as Test centurion and hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, who was in tears upon learning he would miss out on his last chance to play for Italy, and on the biggest stage against the defending champions.
He says: “I was gutted because of all the training and preparation, but I felt so bad for those who were finishing their international careers, particularly for Leo because he had done his knee badly and he had been out since the Six Nations and he had worked so hard to get back for that last game.
“He burst out crying as soon as they said it on the Thursday. I was frustrated, but I was more concerned about someone like Leo who was in bits that he was never going to play again.”
The Italians’ frustration with World Rugby was well publicised when both captain Sergio Parisse, another making his final World Cup appearance, and head coach Conor O’shea aired their grievances, but Polledri gives an intimate glimpse into the dressing room and the sense of almost grief the players felt for Ghiraldini.
“We all put our arms around Leo, but we had to let him get those emotions out because of the amount of work he had put in. The biggest frustration was they called it off on the Thursday and then actually the typhoon never hit us.”
A treasured memory has been not just learning the dark arts of the back row from Parisse, but also the language. “Luckily for me, Callum and [Zimbawean-born] Sebastian Negri, Sergio speaks four language and understands the position we are in. He wants us to learn Italian, but at the same time he helps make sure we understand everything.”
Despite this bitter end to his World Cup, one gets the impression that the 10-cap international has the ability to put things into perspective thanks to the more circuitous route his career took. It included a stint, while playing for amateur clubs Ding Crusaders and Hartpury, working in the family businesses – a “greasy spoon” cafe and their Subway franchises.
Considering his former line of
‘Italians are very passionate. They cry at the national anthem. It has helped my game’
work, it is of little surprise that Polledri dedicates much of the interview to comparing English and Italian eating habits. He enjoys being able to bring a little piece of England on Italy duty as he likes to swap salami snacks and share his Boundless Nuts & Seeds, a brand of which he takes being an ambassador for seriously due to his fondness for different cuisines.
He is particular tickled by his international colleagues’ penchant for four-hour dinners accompanied by copious amounts of bread. “Everyone at Gloucester would be moaning because they would want to be in bed or chilling out, whereas with Italy the boys are out for hours eating all that bread and slowly drinking wine.”
He may have had to quit the bread and extra pasta, but one way Italy seem to have given him the edge ahead of this international campaign is in the emotional side of the game: he has found expressing his emotions and frustrations has become much easier. “They are very expressive and emotional. It is nice to see. Passion is a big for word the Italians; they talk about that a lot. They are very passionate, they cry when they sing the national anthem and they often cry in the changing room. If you see people around you, it helps you, it has helped my game at Gloucester.”