Italian success long time in the making

I??ve been following the women??s side for many years now and I??ve seen them grow little by little, never losing heart when the results wouldn??t go their way. I remember the downcast faces after a 76-0 loss to England, but I also remember the first victory in Mira (a 31-10 win over Scotland) which showed everyone there that this was our home -?˜and our tournament. How much progress there??s been since then. From Biella (the historic debut of Italy women against France in 2007) to Badia, so many things have changed, so many girls have grown up, finally with a rugby ball in hand. Amid the passion of the management, often working in difficult conditions, the disinterest of the media and sometimes also the Rugby Federation, the girls have hung in there with their dreams and ambitions. One step after another, chasing an ultimate goal that we haven??t yet achieved: to get back among the best twelve teams in the world at the 2017 World Cup .. and then who knows?

There??s one thing though which very few people have stopped to consider, a fundamental question in my opinion: ??where are these victories coming from???

The strength of the Azzurre doesn??t just stem from the strong tight-knit group of thirty women who put their heart and soul in on the field and make endless sacrifices - there??s much much more. Behind this team, there is a movement which is building year after year. As an example, we??ve built up from 24 teams in the Coppa Italia in 2005 to almost 70 teams which exist now. Just five years ago it simply wasn??t a notion that women??s rugby might take hold beyond the traditional hotspots of rugby - and yet today, we have three Coppa Italia teams in Campania. Siciliy and Puglia taking part, whilst Lombardy has witnessed nothing short of a boom in the last two years with twelve teams now signed up to the Coppa Italia. Undoubtedly, there??s still much left to do: improve the structure of the Serie A championship; invest in sevens, and in mini-rugby -?˜but the path we??ve started along is definitely the right one.

We now have more registered women players than Wales and Scotland, and are quickly moving ever closer to one of the European superpowers of women??s rugby: Ireland. Credit for the growth can certainly be put down to several different factors: a winning national side, which is definitely an excellent driving force, but also a?˜coach like Andrea Di Giandomenico who has managed in just a few years to build the ??Italian game??, not something copied or adapted from other sides. The girls have developed their own style of play which suits them, which is certainly no small feat.

We also owe a huge amount to the massive effort of Maria Cristina Tonna, always an unshakeable advocate of women??s rugby in Italy, but also an Azzurre of the past, like Federica Bortolato or Silvia Lolli, Licia Stefan or Erika Morri and so many other names mostly unknown to people, but without whom we would never have arrived at Cumbernauld or Badia. Like a flourishing plant, our girls are planting roots, from Rome to the must unknown villages in Italy - and win or lose, that remains the greatest victory of our women.