In community game, Italy are world leaders
In my rugby travels, one thing stands out more than anything else. Wherever there is rugby, the people around it are always the same.
The language may be different but the people have the same outlook on life; be they players, coaches, administrators or club members. I wonder if it is the game that attracts a certain type of person, or whether the game builds certain characteristics in its participants.
I arrived in Italy to be director of rugby at a club near Parma a year ago; a club whose senior men’s team were in Serie A and senior women’s team were champions of Italy.
I arrived with a bag full of preconceived ideas as to how my Anglo Saxon culture would help this Italian club grow. But in many ways what happens here challenges the conventions we have in the UK in so many ways.
The Italy national team have struggled to make the impact consistently that the world expected – but that ignores the vitality and energy of the game at grass roots levels. Playing numbers, if World Rugby figures are accurate, are higher than Wales and Scotland, and the number of clubs here puts rugby among the major sports.
Rugby in Italy has the same values as rugby the world over – except here, the volume button on some values is turned up to 11! Take the often-quoted idea of rugby as “family” – here it is taken to another level. The clubhouse is at the centre of the community and the club embraces family in very Italian ways. Lunch is an event every day – pro players, local businesses, office staff, sponsors and parents all eat together (homemade pasta of course!), and lunch hour (or two hours) is spent socializing.
School finishes early afternoon in Italy, leaving working parents with child care problems potentially. Recognising this, the club has ten mini buses driven by retired club members who pick the children up after school to come to the club. They have space to do their studies – and be coached – the club becomes part of their life.
In the early evening, parents congregate for that most important of early evening Italian rituals – Aperitivo hour… again, placing the club at the heart of family life.
Every year some of the U18s will head away to university and a club benefactor will pay tuition fees for a number of them. The U16s last season took it upon themselves to go into the city and support a charity and feed the homeless and refugees, doing good work and achieving something together, building their bond.
My favourite team at the club is the Bufali Rosse – a team for adults with learning difficulties. They train two or three times a week, getting essential physical development as well as the club providing respite care for families.
How many clubs in the UK understand their role in the wider community like this?
We have a pro men’s team and a women’s team with ten international players. The role of these teams is to provide the shop window, the role models who will inspire local youngsters in a competitive sporting environment. It is tough to give youngsters a reason to play rugby in a country which is soccer, volleyball, cycling, basketball and water polo obsessed.
From Top 12 (men) and Serie A (women) to the U6 (and soon we will have Didi Rugby) there is a refreshing clarity of purpose – except for when the national team under performs, when the whole rugby world in Italy disappears into a world of insecurity.
In my next article I will share my thoughts on the performance environment in Italy – but in the community and family part of the game, Italy is the world leader.