In the aftermath of the second match of the Six Nations, thunder comes from across the Channel that shakes the whole of oval Europe. The Times states that Italy no longer has the right to serve in the prestigious tournament. It is useless, argues the English newspaper, to continue to support expensive travel and risk injuries of key players to play against a formation that has no real chance of winning the match, let alone the tournament. Even those in England who support Italy's participation in the 6 Nations are certainly not doing so for technical reasons. “Every two years we cannot deny ourselves a trip to the most beautiful city in the world, between Piazza Navona and the Colosseum – we read in the Telegraph -, just as we cannot deny ourselves witnessing live the exploits of the strongest number 8 in the world, Sergio Parisse”.
The match against England was strange, but it doesn't seem to justify the positions of the Times. And that's enough, and how. The problem doesn't lie in having lost two games with heavy passives, nor in having finished last year with a wooden spoon in his pocket. The problem lies in the total lack of a sensible sports policy that guarantees the growth of a movement that does exist. Captain Parisse wonders where are the young phenomena who can replace him. He should address the question to those of his future colleagues in the Federation who have made the wrong choice in any choice they have ventured up to now.
In Italy it works like this: the Federation selects young people when they are around 15-16 years old, mainly on the basis of physical and athletic criteria. The biggest, the tallest, the fastest, the most elusive wins. On the other hand, at 16 it would be crazy to go looking for technique and tactical ability. After the selection of a handful of boys per year, the group does not change much until the more mature age arrives, around the age of twenty. Throughout their youthful years, kids are squeezed out as expenses-reimbursed professionals. You start going to the gym at 16; excruciating athletic sessions, mostly useless given the results of the under 17 teams onwards.
The problem arises in the transition from youth to adulthood, which translates into the transition from junior to senior series. The federation has invested in those guys figures that we don't know, and part of those figures pour into the pockets of the clubs that host those champions. If, by chance, one of those choices does not prove to be up to the level required in the Eccellenza or Pro D12 championships, admitting it would mean admitting a mistake that lasted from five to eight years (from when that player became of national interest to when turned out to be unsuitable for the high level). And in fact, no one admits it.
In the meantime, many young people have not been taken into consideration because they do not fall within the national interest. If the selections and observers focus on a pre-selected package already packaged, there is and will never be room for those who have not received the right pass at the right time. Some will say that this is how it works everywhere, yet England is showing how much long-term sports policy choices count for international scores. The red roses started this Six Nations with the second team winning, without apparent threats to the leadership of the tournament, and is preparing to host the World Cup that it had thought of facing with a team that is proving to be in doubt. Yet plan B works the best, and one can only expect that there is also a plan C, D, E etc.
Up there, the boys up to about twenty years of age do not see the weights of our gyms and train mainly with the bodyweight, on athletics and technique, as well as on tactical choice skills in the game. Up there, the Federation gathers the players about every two weeks to run in a game system that goes beyond any individuality - which is instead cultivated, and well, within the clubs. Up there the boys can't afford to leave England, as long as they don't choose not to play for the England national team.
With us, there are more and more those who choose other goals to grow in rugby, and there are not a few goals who are happy to accept them - because it's not a matter of talent, dear Parisse, which is often not lacking. Just look at a Pasquali at the Tigers in Leicester, at an Allan in Perpignan as well as Benvenuti, and who knows how many more there will be. Among other things, very often it is decided to exclude these young people, because they must not be burned. Then you go to see the average age of the British (about 22 years) and you die of a burning smell.
The phenomenon, among other things, is spread at all levels, from the youth to the already professional one. McLean, Masi, Parisse, Barbieri, Ghiraldini, Allan, Vosawai, Castrogiovanni, Aguero play abroad, and surely some are missing. Furthermore, those who play "in Italy" play in the two franchises involved in the Celtic championship (Wales and Ireland). Try explaining it to a rugby atheist, you'll see the face he makes. The result is that only a very small part, two or three players, of the blue squad plays in Italy. It's a curious phenomenon: a nation that doesn't exist in terms of rugby, but which is represented and doesn't work.
To reconnect with the shock position of the British media of "Italy must leave the Six Nations", one can respond as follows. Italy cannot leave the Six Nations because there is no Italy of Rugby, there are a handful of Italian players who either play abroad or in Italian teams without a real territorial base in a foreign championship. Waste of money, waste of people, waste of a movement that is very present in the area, the real one.
