Losing Italy would help welfare for top players

IN many ways I feel for Italian rugby. I understand the pain they must feel as a nation that loves Rugby Union, but does not truly understand or know it in the way that it is known in leading rugby nations around the world, such as England, Wales, France, New Zealand and South Africa, where it is part of sporting culture.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

It makes it difficult to establish a wide enough playing base when the game is not played very much in schools or in a club network that is established throughout the whole country, and where mini sections introduce rugby to generations of youngsters.

They have had a domestic league structure in Italy for some time, and I know that Michael Lynagh and David Campese both went and played there.

I’m not an expert in how long it takes for the game to take root in another country, but my impression of rugby in Italy is that it tends to be fragmented, with hot-spots in a few parts of the country where the game is established, but then much larger areas where it is not really known, or played.

There is also a problem of some of their best players leaving Italy for club contracts in France and England, rather than being on home soil to inspire the next generation of players.

However, Jake Polledri is a great addition to the Italian side, and the Gloucester flanker has come on so well he would have been pushing to start for England if he had not opted for the land of his father.

Polledri learned his rugby in England, and the big question is how long will it be before Italy starts to produce lots of Polledris of its own?