Even at our best we can still lose by 30 points!
Leonardo Ghiraldini tells Jon Newcombe the high points of his 14-year Italy career
Leonardo Ghiraldini looks back on his long international career with immense pride, especially the glory days when the underdogs toppled the Six Nations heavyweights.
The 36-year-old hooker pulled on the Italian jersey no fewer than 107 times as one of only eight Azzurri players to reach a century of caps.
He decided to call it a day at the highest level in December after 14 years of outstanding service. He appeared at four Rugby World Cups, played under five different national team coaches and captained his country in a career where he never gave less than 100 per cent.
The former Treviso, Leicester and Toulouse front row star had planned to bow out against the All Blacks at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but Typhoon Hagibis put paid to that. Instead, his final run out came against Wales at a deserted Parc y Scarlets in the final round of the Autumn Nations Cup.
“So many things have happened in the last few years with my injuries, the typhoon and Covid but I always wanted to get back and play for Italy,” he told The Rugby Paper.
“I am really proud to have played for my country for so many years. Even my last match was like my first. Every time I was preparing my bag for the national team, I was proud and happy.
“I always gave my all for this jersey on and off the pitch.
“My goal was to have a winning team and to help the team to get results. But it is not always easy with Italy.
“You have to play at 100 per cent to be in with a chance and even if you play at 100 per cent, sometimes you still lose by 30 points.” Ghiraldini says he enjoyed working with each of his international coaches but South African Nick Mallett comes out for special praise. “Pierre Berbizier, Nick Mallett, Jacques Brunel, Conor O’Shea, Franco Smith … they were all different coaches, with a different mentality and a different way of playing,” he said. “Berbizier gave me my debut and was very rigorous; I will always have Nick Mallett in my heart, he is such a good guy and was really loved by the players; Brunel’s calmness helped the players to perform in his first two years; Conor O’Shea, I think, is a great manager and made some good changes; and Franco Smith cares a lot about Italian rugby and he really want to make a change.”
It was Brunel who led Italy to what Ghiraldini feels was the most significant of the 20 wins he enjoyed in a blue jersey.
Ghiraldini looks back with fondness on the 2013 Six Nations campaign, in which Italy won two games to finish fourth.
Having beaten France first up, Brunel’s side kept England try-less at Twickenham to earn a losing bonus point before signing off with a 22-15 win over Ireland in Rome.
“Against Ireland, in 2013, the last match of the Six Nations, that was the most important single win, even more than the wins against France, because it confirmed that Italy were competing at a high level,” he said.
“More than half of the national team was playing for Treviso, myself included, and we were playing really well, and had one of the best seasons for ten years. We brought that winning mentality to the national team.
“It was a very good Ireland too, but we played with confidence from the first minute until the end.
“Sergio Parisse had a yellow card in the second half and that is sometimes when Italy struggle, when something negative like that happens. But we kept fighting and continued to play with the right mentality.”
Ghiraldini joined Leicester the following year and had two seasons at the Tigers, under Richard Cockerill, experiencing the sort of straight-talking that he feels was sometimes lacking during his Italy career.
“When I moved to England (in 2014), I became a better player, a better athlete, a better man,” he admitted.
“After three days at Leicester, I was already sure it was the right place for me. Richard Cockerill, was always tough with the forwards but I had a really good time with him.
“He is the type of coach I like – honest, direct and brutal sometimes. I always appreciated his way of talking with the players. Everyone knew what the plan was.
“We got to two Premiership semi-finals while I was there but, unfortunately I was injured quite a lot in my second season.”
Then came the move to Toulouse, and some long-awaited silverware.
“Toulouse is a completely different place to Leicester but both clubs have had success and a good history and a sense of tradition,” he said.
“I didn’t play in the Top 14 final in 2019 because of the injury I got against France in the final game of the Six
Nations, but I was involved in all the games beforehand and I was there, in the stand, the day we won. It was a proud moment.”
A move to Bordeaux-Begles, in January 2020, put Ghiraldini in a position to lift the Bouclier de Brennus in consecutive years.
However, Covid-19 stopped the then Top 14 leaders in their tracks and the season was cancelled without Ghiraldini playing a single game for his new club.
Ghiraldini has not ruled out signing for another club if it is right for his family.
“Obviously, I know I am not 20 years old; I have to think more about the future,” he said. “If a door opens, I have trained every day as if I am preparing for a World Cup because I want to say at least I give everything if someone calls me.”
“Cockerill is the type of coach I like - honest, direct, brutal”