Kaine Robertson:Italy's New Zealand-born winger gives Paddy Agnewan idea of his game plan for Saturday
Sitting in the 22 degree sunshine in the courtyard of La Borghesiana's upmarket sports centre-cum-luxury hotel, Italy's rugby players risk being mistaken for their soccer counterparts. After all, like the soccer men, they're all out in blue and La Borghesiana, just beyond Rome's ring road, is a favourite training haunt for the national soccer team.
The comparisons end, however, when one of the players, 26-year-old Kaine Robertson, scorer of a brilliant try in last weekend's last gasp 23-20 win over Wales, gets to his feet and comes across to say hello. Were he an Italian soccer player you might just have to chase after him and then settle for a couple of monosyllabic cliches by way of an interview.
The fresh-faced Robertson, however, could hardly be more helpful or talkative. He is, of course, neither Italian nor a soccer player. He is a New Zealander (of Scottish descent) who came to Italy nine years ago as an 18-year-old just out of school and intending to stay for two or three months.
The idea was to get back to New Zealand and play his way into the All Black schoolboy team. Then he met a girl and nine years later he is still here, a player with the Arix Viadana club near Mantua and, as such, qualified to play for Italy.
As a foreigner, who is also a key part of the Italy squad, he realises all too well that this is a golden moment for Italian rugby: "They tell me that 1.5 million people watched the game against Wales last Saturday. For me, that's half of New Zealand watching."
So then, can Italy, winners against Scotland and Wales already this season, do it a third time against Ireland? "This will be difficult. Ireland have to be the number two or three team in the world just now. They've always been in the top eight but now they've pushed up a level and they're right at the top and they have been for the last couple of seasons.
"Hopefully, the loss of Paul O'Connell will weaken them. But, on the plate for them, there is the Six Nations title and they will be giving everything. This will be the game that they have been targeting, most teams do target it, looking to score a lot of points against Italy. After all, the title could well come down to the points difference.
"Yet, that could work in our favour in a way since Ireland might go for tries and not take their kicks, just the way Scotland did against us."
He has no problems saying "our favour". He might be a New Zealander but he is a professional too and with 18 Italy caps under his belt, a large corner of his heart beats proudly and unequivocally for Italy.
Robertson, of course, is a winger. That is the position from which he scored that try against Wales. How, though, does he intend to stop powerful counterpart Shane Horgan if and when he comes face to face with the Irishman in full flight. The answer is a perfect mixture of New Zealand know-how and Machiavellian realism: "Take out his legs."
Robertson acknowledges, however, Ireland have a more than useful pair of wingers in Horgan and Denis Hickie: "They are totally different players. Hickie is very good on his feet and very quick. Horgan is a big guy but he is quick as well and he is probably one of the top wingers in the world right now."
Kaine Robertson plays his club rugby for one of the best supported Serie A rugby clubs in Italy but that still means average crowds of only 2,000. So even Rome's 26,000-capacity Flaminio Stadium can seem a little intimidating, especially, as he points out, it is usually 50-50 divided between home and away fans: "Last Saturday, when the Welsh fans sang their anthem, I thought we were in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, all I could see was red shirts all around. Then I looked behind me and I saw the blue shirts. I suppose it will be the same this Saturday with a lot of green around."
Could well be, Kaine.
