Italians hope class gulf can narrow

The IRB’s vow to invest money on world rugby’s middle tier will have been met with hearty applause in an Italian camp acutely aware just how wide the gap is between themselves and the world’s heavyweights.

Italy’s 70-7 defeat to New Zealand last Saturday left many Azzurri fans questioning whether they had actually made any progress at all in the 16 years since the inaugural World Cup.

After all, their opening game in 1987 was a virtual carbon copy, with the All Blacks running in 11 tries and winning 70-6 – though it should be noted that in those days tries were worth only four points.

Team manager Marco Bollesan, who was coach when Italy accepted the invitation to the 1987 World Cup, explained that while Azzurri rugby had moved forward, the gap remained just as wide.

“There has been a substantial improvement in the game since that result in 1987,” he said.

“But the gap between a lot of the teams and New Zealand hasn’t narrowed.”

The International Rugby Board’s chief executive Mike Miller yesterday outlined a change in strategy aimed at assisting the middle tier of the world game.

“Over the past four years or so what we’ve been doing is trying to get more nations playing rugby. We’ve done that as we now have 96 members of the IRB,” he said.

“Over the next four to eight years we have to go with a slightly different approach. We need to target our money more strategically.

“We need to bring the next five or six nations to a similar standard to the top five or six. If we can do that we won’t see as many of these lopsided scores.”

New Zealand have been virtually written out of the Pool D equation, as none of Italy, Wales, Tonga or Canada are likely, or expecting, to shock the mighty All Blacks.

While it makes for an exciting race for second place, coach John Kirwan believes the situation indicates just how much work the IRB need to do.

“I think that if rugby is going to be successful globally then the All Blacks should struggle to win the pool,” he said.

“It’s important for global rugby that minor nations play well. If this World Cup is successful, some of the minor unions will do well.”

So far, while the spirit and determination has been creditable, the scorelines have been embarrassing for the minnows.

The Azzurri’s immediate aims are to reach the quarter-finals – “that would be like winning the World Cup”, said Kirwan – but on a wider scale the future of the game in Italy is at stake.

Kirwan is confident the momentum for rugby, in a country dominated by soccer, basketball and cycling, is growing all the time.

While the All Blacks result was a setback, Kirwan hopes an exciting brand of rugby, and a tense battle to reach the last eight, will be enough to entice the sports fans back home.

“One of the exciting things about our pool is that everyone is predicting the All Blacks to go through and then the other teams are fighting it out,” he said.

“Tonga beat us in the last World Cup, so we have a lot of respect for them. Canada are a little bit scary from a coaching point of view because they are a little bit unknown at the moment.

“The beauty about the rest of us is that we all think we have got a chance to make it so that makes for an exciting tournament.

“Rugby in Italy is in growth and if we can play positive football, then that will keep growing.

“I think the momentum is building. It would be fantastic if Italy could have a great World Cup. It’s important we have a good tournament.”