January 16, 1998 . For many this cold date at the beginning of the year, perhaps, may not remember much, but for the Italian national rugby team , without mincing words, it represented a second birth. Or rather, the transition from adolescence to adulthood . Among the greats.
That day, in fact, in Paris, the committee of the Five Nations , one of the most prestigious tournaments around the oval ball, decided to admit Italy to the tournament starting from 2000. Change of name with “Six Nations” which, with the entered the new millennium, it will also be appreciated in our peninsula.
The path of Italy in the elite has been long and tortuous: there have been blows, defeats, youth sectors to organize, sports to be promoted together with the spirit of loyalty and sweat. Federugby has sown a lot in previous decades and perhaps 1997 is the year it begins to reap the rewards. Many beautiful fruits.
In the first test match of the season, on 4 January, the Azzurri played a bad joke on Ireland . At their home, on Dublin’s Lansdowne Road, the Irish were bent 37-29: Italy went to the goal four times, against only one of the opponents. Only set pieces reduced the otherwise considerable gap. That match, that first piece of enterprise, as often happened in those years, had a completely exotic name: Diego Dominguez , author of 22 points (one goal, four transformations and three placed) that drag the 15 blues where Paolo Vaccari also shone, with two goals, and Massimo Cuttitta, with one.
On March 22, 1997 , the Fira Cup final was staged. The European Nations Championship, born in 1936, for many decades represented the most ambitious and top rugby event in the Old Continent. With the explosion of the 6 Nations and the exit of France and Italy (which together with Wales, England, Ireland and Scotland, compete in the tournament) the Fira Cup has dropped a step, finding in Georgia, the current dominatrix.
Over the course of the editions, France, which has the record of victories with 25 trophies out of 30 participations , has for a long time sent the representative “B”. But on March 22, 1997, in the final between Italy and France, the transalpines came down with the best team, in what was in effect an official test.
It is played in Grenoble, at the Lesdiguieres stadium, not in Paris, at the Parc des Princes. And perhaps this was the only stain, the only sin of a day carved in the history of Italian rugby.
Italy, going against the odds, won with a 40-32 which with six minutes remaining was still a 40-20, the result of four tries by four different scorers: Ivan Francescato, Paolo Vaccari, Julian Gardner and Giambattista Croci . Diego Dominguez’s foot did the rest, transforming all the goals between the posts and also scoring four set pieces.
The goal of Croci , who was a bank official by profession, in particular, the result of teamwork that involved numerous players, and remained in the recent history of Italian rugby as the turning point of the whole movement. That was the first Fira Cup raised by Italy .
Also that year, before Christmas, in Bologna, Italy scored twice, defeating Ireland again 37-22 . In January 1998, however, it was Scotland that folded 25-22 .
The perfect seal to celebrate the most important decision for blue rugby: January 16, 1998, Italy is among the greats.
