This is fun!
Since I undertook the slight transformation of my little blog, I’ve begun to change too. I suppose you could say that I am becoming a sort of (very) informal journalist. And now I find that I’m on the look out for ’stories’ that I think will be interesting or useful to write about in my blog, but although my motivation is quite personal, based on what I like to write about and that I enjoy this, I also hope, in some small way, that others may also like what go on about, and even find it informative, in some small way.
Take my recent posts about touch rugby for example - even if I am probably the world’s worse team player, in a sporting sense, I do love the idea of a sport which is a little different, and that allows both men and women play together. For this reason, this sport really appeals to me. Hence my recent focus on this emerging pastime.
Indeed, I was down at the 4-4-2 pub here in Milan, yet again tonight, where I saw Massimiliano, the touch rugby president, and his guests Shane Wilson, the Ozzie from Brisbane who trains the Scottish touch team in Edinburgh, Scotland, and his charming other half Claire, who also happens to be a touch player. Talk about having something in common. I shall write a little more about Shane in another post. And, I want to mention ‘Maz’ (’Matz‘ is how you pronounce it) Fazzoni, the guy who set up and runs the very nice Italian touchrugbymilano blog, and who I shall also be writing about in the near future.
The only trouble with this ‘pretending to be a hack’ thing is that as soon as I whip out my good old Dell pocket pc to tap out a few notes on (I have a terrible memory), people see that I’ve gone into ‘journalist’ mode and go into a sort of, ‘uh-oh, I’m about to be interviewed by a journalist’ mode as they psyche themselves up for my style of mini-interview. And, as you might expect, some people become a wee bit wary. This reaction, sort of allows me to understand how a real life journalist must feel and to appreciate how those on the recieving end of one of an interview must feel. It is an interesting experience, if ever there was one, I can tell you. I have to say that before starting to change Blog from Italy into what it is becoming, albeit very slowly, I never in my whole life imagined pretending to be a type of journalist. But, I do rather like the feeling.
Talking of feelings, one of the guys who took part in the touch match this evening, was a certain Toni, who, as it happens, lives in the very same appartment block as myself! But at first, I did not recognise him. As it turns out, he is a former rugby player who has been told that he cannot play the full contact version of the sport on account of his having knee injuries, but despite this, he is someone who obviously still finds the rugby bug quite difficult to shake off. And, isn’t it amazing how you can just about live together in a big city, but not really know someone? Odd, but that is city life, I guess. Others have talked about the anonymity of living in a conurbation, but I’d never really believed it until this evening.
An impromptu evening at the pub, becomes an interesting experience - that I want to continue. Addictive, it is.
Touch Rugby Italy
Just to confirm that Shane Wilson, the Australian who is the Scottish National Touch Rugby team coach, is now over here. There will be a touch rugby training session tomorrow, the 11th October at 9.05pm in Via Govone, 35, Milan. Afterwards, I guess, everyone will be off down to the 4-4-2 pub! I shall be at the pub around 10ish.
The day I met the president.
Yes, it’s true, I met the president the other day, while I was watching rugby at the 4-4-2 pub here in Milan.
However, as you may have guessed, the president I met was not the famous guy who runs the States from a big white house. Instead this president, one Massimiliano Natale, heads the Italian Touchrugby association, and is involved in the association’s informative website ‘Mai dire Meta’ - ‘Never say Try’ in English.
Since this sounded interesting, we started chatting and he told me how he and a group of friends got together in 2005 to promote touch rugby as a new sport in Italy. As a result, they created a website and registered the Italian Touchrugby association as a charity. Now they are working on the promotion of the sport in Italy. However, promoting this game will not be all that easy in football mad Italy, but, having said that, there are some indications that football is losing some of its popularity here. Interestingly, Massimiliano is himself an ex-football fan, which is one indication that something is changing. Another sign of change is the participation of the Italian rugby team in international rugby championships, which has proved very popular with Italian TV audiences, thanks in great part to the matches being shown on the Italian La 7 TV channel.
Perhaps it would be true to say that the Italian team’s struggle to the top has created a resurgence of interest in Rugby which is something of a minority sport here in Italy. Possibly this resurgence is due to stories of violence at football matches, over-paid players, and various scandals have caused people to find an alternative to the ‘beautiful’ game. In other words, a sport which is still a sport, and not a thinly disguised international business.
Enter touch rugby or ‘touch’ as it is known down in Australia, where it is also referred to as touch football, apparently.
But why play touch rugby instead of the traditional form of the game? Well, while rugby is a great game, it is perhaps a wee bit violent for the average person who is not built like a small armoured vehicle, and this aspect of the game most probably puts many people off from trying out the sport. Touch rugby, though, is an essentially non-violent form of rugby. There is no tackling, scrumming, rucking, mauling, lineouts and kicking. It’s also a sport which both men and women can play on equal terms, and Massimiliano told me that a number of women do play the game in and around Milan. I like the idea that both men and women can play a sport together, and touch is one of those few sports in which mixed-sex teams are possible.
Have a go
If you would like to have a go at touch, then at the moment Touchrugby organises touch matches in local parks, especially Parco Nord which is on the northern side of Milan and the park in Cernusco sul Naviglio. Both Parco Nord and Cernusco are easily reached by public transport. You can find details of forthcoming events and games in Mai Dire Meta’s forum, although the information is currently only in Italian. I shall try to encourage Massimiliano to set up an RSS feed on his site so that subscribers can find out when and where meetings will take place.
Other teams
There are also some other teams springing up, as you can see from the list on the Mai Dire Meta site. The news on the front page indicates that there are also two teams down in Rome.
English is spoken
Do not worry if you do not speak Italian, Massimiliano speaks good English and I understand from him that a number of non-Italians are members of the club, including a few Welsh people who live and work over here.
So if you are feeling a little overweight and need a little exercise, or simply fancy meeting some new people and want to have a little fun, get in touch with Touchrugby Italy through the Mai Dire Meta site, or register in the Mai Dire Meta form, ask a few questions (in English!) and find out some more. The non-obligatory Touchrugby membership fee is a whole 10 Euros. For this fee you get insurance cover and the right to play in international tournaments. However, playing a game of touch in the local parks will not cost anything and never will. Players between the ages of 25 to 60 are more than welcome. Mai Dire Meta is also looking for volunteers to help set up touch teams in other areas around Italy, so contact them if you think you may be able to help out.
You may also be interested to hear that on the 11th October, Shane Wilson, an Australian who is the Scottish National Touch rugby team coach, will be over here in Milan. In honour of this occasion, Touchrugby has found somewhere to hold a match in the central Fiera area of Milan. A party is also planned and will most probably take place at the good old 4-4-2 on the same day. See the Mai Dire Meta site and forums for details.
To see some more photos of the players in action and find out more (in Italian), follow these links:
If you would like to see some videos of the teams in action check out this on YouTube .
There are certainly some parallels between touch and the full blown contact sport, indeed, after a game of either version, you will find all the players down at the pub downing more than a few beers!
Photos by Nicola Stornati
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