Minnozzi’s withdrawal makes us appreciate Parisse all the more

MATTEO Minozzi’s withdrawal from Italy’s Six Nations squad citing the stress and dislocation of having to flit between Covid bubbles – club and country – while being expected to be a star performer for both is a timely warning of the stresses and strains many players are, manly silently, undergoing at present.

They entertain us royally but do not underestimate their efforts and the personal cost involved.

It is also, I would suggest, an indirect tribute to the remarkable Sergio Parisse, his former Italy skipper and fellow rugby itinerant. Now Parisse didn’t have to contend with Covid but he did have to ride two horses throughout his 17-year international career, criss-crossing Europe and the world as he tried to please two masters.

For fifteen of those seasons he was both the star man and often captain of Stade Francais, helping to mastermind their Top 14 and European campaigns while throughout that period he was also the totem pole player, role model and main spokesperson not only for Italy but Italian rugby generally.

Just about every Press conference – club and country – centred on him. And being eloquent in at least four languages and of an agreeable disposition, he rarely let the media down. He never stopped.

Meanwhile at the end of every Top 14 season, while most of his club colleagues headed for the beach, Parisse girded his loins again for Italy’s summer tour and every January, after overseeing rounds five and six of Stade’s European campaigns, he jetted straight down to Rome for the even bigger challenge of trying to inspire Italy in the Six Nations. For a decade or more he must have been Alitalia’s best customer.

It was a marathon effort, a phenomenal commitment – mental as much as physical – and makes his consistency on the pitch even more admirable, especially as he was usually dealing with defeat with Italy and trying to raise morale as well as standards. The lot of the international based overseas has never been an easy one, it’s just that Parisse made it appear so.