Forza to be reckoned with

Italy/ Boomtime for the game:For the first time rugby has supplanted calcio on the front of Italy's sports papers. Paddy Agnewreports from Rome.

'Just at the moment, here in Rome there are two matches that everybody wants a ticket for. One is Roma's Champions League tie with Manchester United and the other is Saturday's Six Nations game with Ireland.

"There's no doubt about it, rugby is absolutely the tops just now. There is a sense of nausea among fans about soccer. The calciopoli corruption scandal has alienated people and then the Serie A soccer championship this year is boring - Inter have already got it sewn up."

Fabrizio Bocca, sports editor of the daily La Repubblica, is the speaker. His words bear witness to the hugely popular moment being experienced by rugby in Italy.

For instance, three weeks ago, on the morning after that historic Six Nations away win, 37-17, against Scotland, a remarkable thing happened. For once, rugby knocked football of the front pages. Gazzetta Dello Sport, Italy's leading sports daily, carried a banner headline that read, "Italia, Che Forza." In more than 100 years, rugby had never featured on the prestigious front page of Gazzetta.

Other Italian media likewise got unusually excited about rugby. Even though it was a Sunday, a day normally reserved for calcio (soccer), La Repubblica devoted a two-page spread to the Italian victory.

Another prestigious daily, Corriere Della Sera, carried the story and a photo on the front page alongside reports Prime Minister Romano Prodi was about to get the nod to put together again his temporarily fallen government.

Normally, that sort of headline treatment is reserved for soccer's Azzurri. Never mind that the Scots rather rashly conceded no fewer than three tries in the opening six minutes. This was a victory to place in the hall of fame alongside previous heroic wins: firstly, there was the 1995 day when Italy beat Ireland (22-12) in a "friendly" in Treviso; then there was the 1997 day when Italy beat France in France (at Grenoble) for the first time; then too came that never-to-be-forgotten Six Nations debut on February 6th, 2000, when Italy opened up with a win, beating Scotland 34-20 at the little Flaminio stadium in Rome.

Put it this way: rugby has never had it so good in Italy. Everybody, it seems, wanted to celebrate the latest win. When the Italian outhalf Pepe Scanavacca turned on his mobile phone after the Scottish game, he found a message from a soccer World Cup winner, the AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso: "You were just great. Now, I want tickets for the next two games."

Another famous footballer who felt moved to comment was Gianni Rivera, the Golden Boy of the 1960s and 1970s: "The wonderful thing about rugby is that everybody shares the same values and your opponent is seen as an opponent only on the field of play."

The point is that, ironically, rugby could yet make a big breakthrough in Italy at precisely the moment when, following last summer's events in Germany, the nation's soccer team reign proudly (for the fourth time) as world champions.

That splendid achievement for Italian soccer has to be juxtaposed against some recent negative events that have marred the "national" game.

For a start, last summer's calciopoli corruption scandal and subsequent enforced relegation of Italy's most famous and successful club, Juventus (who were also stripped of their Serie A title), was enough to remind sports fans Italian soccer often treads a shady, dishonest path.

More recently, the killing of police inspector Filippo Raciti during riots at the Serie A derby between Palermo and Catania served as a reminder Italian soccer is currently afflicted by a serious fan-violence problem.

In contrast, rugby and rugbymen enjoy a much better press in Italy. Rugby is perceived as the gentleman's game, the one where sporting fair play reigns supreme, even in the era of professional rugby union.

"We have a lot of kids, boys and girls, now playing rugby and there's no doubt that the way the sport is viewed by parents - as being about fair play - helps this," says the rugby federation press officer, Andrea Cimbrico.

So, when did Italian rugby start to get serious? As always, money provides the answer - money in the allegedly all-amateur, pre-professional era.

One of the worst-kept secrets among the rugby fraternity in the 1980s and 1990s was that Italy was a happy destination for star players (perhaps coming to the end of their careers) keen to make a few lira.

Media reports of the day suggested, for instance, the great Australian winger David Campese received $126,000 for lining out for the Milan-based Mediolanum rugby club, then owned by the former prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.

Other big names to play in Italian rugby in those far-off days included the South African Naas Botha (Rovigo), the Australian Michael Lynagh (Treviso) and the former All Black captain Wayne Shelford (Rugby Roma).

With talent like that playing and coaching rugby on a daily basis in Italy, the standard inevitably improved. Some 14 years ago, Shelford predicted to your sceptical correspondent that if and when the game turned professional Italy would be a serious player because "they are organised and they have the sponsorship and the structures".

Obviously, Italy's big breakthrough came with their inclusion in the renamed Six Nations championship, back in 2000. Andrea Cimbrico points out that in 2000, there were approximately 30,000 registered rugby players in Italy. Now, that figure is almost double, approximately 56,000.

The buzz of inclusion in the Six Nations provided a big boost for what was already a sport in expansion - in 1981, for example, there were 243 rugby clubs in Italy but by 2001 that number had risen to 510.

Furthermore, if you look at the map of Italy, you find pockets of rugby excellence all over the peninsula, from traditional strongholds such as Rovigo and Treviso in the north to Catania in Sicily, passing via places such as Parma, L'Aquila and Roma.

Among the 6,000 Italian fans who turned up recently at Murrayfield, there was an enthusiastic and noisy Sicilian contingent.

Yet, it is not all good news. Despite that Murrayfield win, there are those churlish souls who feel that, quite frankly, Italy should not be taking part. After all, the Six Nations wins against Scotland and Wales were only their fourth and fifth wins in seven seasons (the other ones came against Scotland in 2000 and 2004 and against Wales in 2003, all in Rome).

One popular rugby website recently held an opinion poll asking fans if they felt Italy should be excluded from the Six Nations. By the morning after Italy's 23-20 win over Wales last weekend, however, that poll had been removed from the site.

"I think we've answered our critics pretty effectively with the results this season", says the Italy winger Kaine Robertson.

Underlining the progress made by Italian rugby is that in recent seasons they have pushed Australia hard (within seven points) and have led against France, England and Ireland (even if they were eventually beaten).

Rugby commentators also point out that even France struggled to go the pace before they became a force in the old Five Nations.

Underlining Italian progress, too, is the fact that nowadays the squad includes players who play for some of the best French and English clubs such as Stade Français, Saracens and Gloucester.

Then, too, the side is coached by a wily little Frenchman, Pierre Berbizier, who has, according to Robertson, introduced precisely the right tactics and strategy.

"Berbizier has introduced a rush defence; basically he says that we are up against teams that are stronger than us and that we've got to defend well and quickly," says the Auckland, New Zealand, native.

"Then too, the French style of playing and coaching is much more suited to the Italians."

Yet, despite all the current hoo-ha, can rugby really make it in a land where soccer is emphatically king? As an outsider within the camp, Robertson is well placed to answer: "To get ahead of soccer here is impossible; it's the national game here. Some of the lads tell me that the kids who play rugby are the kids that the soccer clubs don't want, perhaps because of their size.

"Hopefully, it could become like in Argentina. After all, Argentina is a great soccer nation but rugby is also really well known there too. When we were out there, I was really struck by the way when the Pumas (Argentine rugby team) walk down the street, everybody knows them, they are stars."

Robertson willingly concedes that, in contrast, Italy's rugby Azzurri pass almost totally unnoticed in the street. Certainly, an Italian rugby team press day out at their Rome base of La Borghesiana is a laid-back, underpopulated event in comparison with the hectic scenes generated by the senior soccer team when they gather for training at the same venue.

Fabrizio Bocca is another who underlines the limitations of the moment: "There is a lot of enthusiasm for the national team but it stops there. The club championship attracts little interest."

So, then, pazienza. For the Irish fans in Rome this weekend, however, Italy's inclusion in the Six Nations championship has added a wonderful away venue to their itinerary. Who does not want to spend a weekend in Rome, visiting the Colosseum, the Forum and the Vatican on the way to the match?

To the greater delight of the rugby tourist, Italy are probably here to stay.