The Rugby Ground

“This is the best ground I’ve ever played on in my life”
This is a quote from one of my teammates, Levon. He is Canadian, I am not sure how many rugby grounds he has played on in his life and besides that he talks a lot of shit usually and I never know when he is serious and when he’s not. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that he is right. And that is true for most of us, me especially. I’ve never seen so much green dedicated to sport practice, moreover such high quality green dedicated for this purpose. UWA sports park complex is home to several sports including Australian Football, Cricket, Rugby, Soccer, Frisbee, Baseball, Athletics and Hockey. Consider that each of these sports have at least two pitches to play on, if not three and you can start to get the idea of the immensity of this venue. To be sure you get the idea, have a look at this pic on the right. The Rugby area is on the top left corner.

Pretty impressive ha?
It was certainly for me. I remember when I first saw the complex I was speechless. I was standing on the top of the hill next to our clubhouse contemplating the astonishing view and I stayed there for a few minutes with my mouth open. I soon started to notice the people that were walking into the field were not paying the minimum attention at the beautiful sight in front of them. I almost got upset for that. Luckily a voice in my head stopped me from taking them back to the top of the hill, make them have a better look at where they would have trained that evening and force them to thank some divinity for living in Perth.  Cause that’s what I wanted to do in that moment.
Even back home we do have good facilities and venues for a wide range of sports including soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, and I almost forgot, soccer. A bit of a lack of variety.
That’s not all. At UWA Rugby the soil and the grass make the difference. The ground is incredibly soft and every time you get in contact with it, no matter how hard, it will cushion the impact with almost no consequences.  At the same time it provides a perfect and solid surface for your studs to penetrate. Awesome. I reckon the weather is involved in this a lot.
In Perth I played maybe one game under the rain, and it was not even heavy rain. I can’t say the same for Italy..
In northern Italy you get a few more issues to deal with when you play.  Rain, Cold and Mud.
You play heaps of games under the rain. If you’re on the wing you have to accept that you’re not gonna receive a single ball and that is gonna be an ignorant rugby game, which means, played by the forwards mostly. It’s still Rugby, no big deal.
In Italy we develop further handling skills that I bet Australians don’t have. The ability to pass and receive the ball without feeling your fingers is a good example. Cause when it gets cold, even below zero during the day, you have to play with some of your limbs frozen. And yeah, the odd shaped balls between your legs make it harder to run when they turn into ice cubes. On top of that you can imagine the pleasure an impact on a frozen  ground can provide. I can’t describe it.

 The best thing although, is when you have all these features combined together! You get a frozen ground with the rain starting to turn superficial layers into mud, leaving the deeper ones solid as concrete, but It’s not too cold to cancel the game and every single rain drop feels like ice penetrating your skin making you feel colder and heavier minute by minute. It doesn’t happen that often, but it happens, and it’s unforgettable.
During these moments you deeply question yourself, and if you are a back you have even more time to do so. You suddenly start to appreciate soccer and basketball much more, and you wonder why you didn’t follow the trend at the time when the movie Billy Elliot came out…

On the top right you'll find a quick poll, let me know what you think

A new start

So after getting my first operation ever in Perth, rugby unfortunately was over for me that season. The lack of a car, Uni and work made it hard to go down to trainings or follow the team on Saturdays. That season UWA Rugby 1^st grade were the premiers which means basically that they won the championship. Great year for Uni. A pity I’ve missed it completely.
In February the wait was over and a new season was starting. Conditioning, trainings, teammates, parties.. I was feeling great again. Uni rugby this season has been competing with 6 senior teams:

·         1^st Grade

The club celebrating Uni's success

·         Reserve Grade

·         3^rd Grade Gold

·         3^rd Grade Black

·         4^th Grade Gold

·         4^th Grade Black

There are 10 major clubs in Perth and all of them have a team that competes in the most important grades. Above that is Super 15 with the Western Force. In 2007 the Australian Rugby Union tried to fill the gap experimenting a national championship but it didn’t work, the losses were too high. Anyway, I started to train with the 3^rd Grade and since the previous year I got injured during a trial game, my goals were set pretty high: make it through the trial games!

I had the post injury complex, but I wasn’t just thinking that I had a weak shoulder and that at the first contact it would fall apart.. I was also convinced that it would happen during those bloody trial games! It did not.
Luckily when you are on that pitch all those images disappear and the desire to put down the opponent carrying the ball and to hold that ball yourself wins over any other thought.
Eventually I made it through and played my first game in Australia, then my second and a third and so on… and man the game here is so fast. I can’t compare it to the level I was playing back home.
There are a few other things that got my attention at the beginning:
First, the most important thing, my favourite. There is NO kicking, unless strictly necessary. Southern hemisphere rugby doesn’t like kicking. In fact I remember a super15 game I went to watch, Western Force against Chiefs in April back this year, and through the middle of the game the two teams started  to kick the ball to each other for territorial gaining, which is pretty common in European rugby at all levels, but here, after a few kicks in a row, the crowd started to boo the kickers aggressively. The sorts of boos Justin Bieber would receive if he tries to get on stage at a Metallica concert. The two teams stopped kicking and played just ball in hand from then on. Awesome.
I always  considered territorial kicking as nothing more than a low skill solution to the overall lack of success and options in attacking play elevated only by the word strategic. Ok sometimes it works, but I don’t like it.

On the left one of those Deceiving Units (Picture: Peter Best)

Another remarkable thing, compared to back home, there are not many fat props or hookers. Here they are all fit. And even when  you find one, be aware cause it’s a trick. They deceive you by looking fat and making you think they are slow but they can be pretty damn quick. Especially when they are Maori as well. I’ve been fooled myself a couple of times.

Here I’ve seen props kicking conversions and penalties like Johnny Wilkinson at his best. You wouldn’t expect that from such big boys.
Next, the incredible rugby culture mix.
I’ve talked about it in a previous post, there are people here from all the major rugby nations. South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand represent a good part of the players in our club, but there are also guys from England, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Scotland, France, Chile, Canada and some others I don’t remember. It’s quite handy when you need to take the piss out of each other and just pull the old good stereotypes.
One last thing relieved some of my concerns. Acknowledging that all these people were coming from different countries made me  worry less about my English, I realised the Irish guys were struggling more than I did… 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

I knew it was going to happen. From the moment my adventure in Australia was finalised, I was still in Milan, excited like I was never before in my life, I was already fantasising about myself playing rugby with David Pocock and giving him advices on how to steal a ball in a ruck. At the time I was also already aware that sooner or later during my experience downunder I would have to face a bad injury. I mean it’s Rugby and it’s part of the game, I just thought it would be later rather than sooner!
It happened during my second trial game, after an entire month of conditioning and after a promising first trial game where I even managed to score a try. I was playing as outside centre, and we called the Bob move. In that move I am getting the ball off number 10, running in the opposite direction of where the ball is coming from.  A usually effective play that can surprise the defence if well executed. This was not the case of course…
A combination of me running a great line to get smashed and my fly half, Jimmy, passing me the ball slightly late created a spectacular hospital pass effect for the spectators of the game. Even for those not familiar with this jargon, the name itself, hospital pass, gives you a good idea of the place you are most likely to end up immediately afterwards. You guessed right, Emergency Department.
I remember clearly the thoughts that went through my head in that split of a second that run from the start of the play to the impact: “here we go, good sprint, ok pass me the ball, give me the ball, give me the ball, give me the ball! give me the ball now! Give me the bloody ball! GIVE ME THE BALL! DON’T GIVE ME the ball! SHI…” massive tackle! One of those the crowd goes “oouuhhhh!” well placed on my right shoulder from the side. I managed somehow to position the ball for my team to keep playing, but when I got up I realised there was something not quite right with the shoulder. I immediately received assistance from one of the players who happens to be also a medicine student, Sam Medway, another great thing of UWA Rugby club. Sam is how we in Italy see the typical Australian guy, tall, good build, blond hair and blue eyes. He is the guy every girlfriend wants its boyfriend to look like and the guy every teenage boy’s mum wants him to be. First grade player, club’s captain with a strong charisma and a good leadership.  And on top of it he is also a Doctor! I know what you’re thinking, there must be a catch… but I haven’t found any so far! Luckily there is one thing he can’t be possibly good at.. Writing.
Anyway, Sam checks my shoulder and after trying to put it back in place several  times he recommends a visit at the hospital.
At the hospital the results are not so rosy, my collar bone ligaments were broken and the there was no alternative to operation if I wanted to go back and play again. Great, after three months in Australia and only 20 mins of playing I was going to have a major surgery and my Rugby season was already over, not a bad start ha?
Well, maybe just a bit unlucky. So I had to look at the positives: I would get an awesome ‘shark-attack-style’ scar to show my friends back home, this was a good chance to improve my English medical lingo, but most of all, the operation was just a few days before my birthday and someone was going to receive some good recreational drugs completely legal and for free!

Little joys of life.

Operation was successful, I just had to wait 6 months for a complete recovery and 10 to the start of the next season to play again. I couldn’t wait to be on that field again with an odd shaped ball in my hands…

How I choose my club

When I arrived in Perth in December 2010 I didn't know anyone. I was living with a host family, a happy couple in their late 50s, and I was attending an English course as part of the University requirements for my postgraduate degree. People from the course were not really interesting and their English was much worse than mine. At home I was pretty disappointed to discover that my host dad didn't follow Rugby. I thought in Australia everyone was following Rugby, I mean, they won the world cup twice and they have 5 teams in the Super 15 tournament!
With time I found out that Australia as opposed to Italy is a multi-sport nation. Depending on the geographical region one sport gets more attention than others but in general the sport ranking based on popularity is Australian Football (AFL), Cricket, Rugby League (NRL) and Rugby Union. AFL, NRL and union are winter sports whilst Cricket, Soccer and Basketball are played in summer.
Back to me. Since the only people I could talk in English with to learn something were a couple that I couldn't even be friends on facebook with,  joining a club was not only part of that dream but a necessity. I asked someone reliable enough to give me the right answer. Google said there were a few clubs I could join in Perth and one of them was the University of Western Australia Rugby Football Club or Uni Rugby for close friends.

I was excited about the idea of playing for the University I would attend and this particular statement on the club’s website got my attention.
UWA Rugby Club is renowned throughout Perth for its expansive style of rugby and social life.
Dad always told me to hold on to certainties I had in life.
I thought, “well if I can’t fit in the expansive style of Rugby I will for sure in the social life, I was really good at it back home.”
So I emailed the club and a person replied very kindly, even offering me a lift to the trainings! And he did so for the next few weeks. Boyd, that’s his name, a man in his 50’s with a good rugby build. Average height, with a nice and thick neck and a pair of square shoulders. Heavy enough to look after himself in a ruck, I would have guessed him playing hooker but he told me later he was a scrum-half. Well I thought that this store keeper was really kind to pick me up from home and give me a ride to the trainings. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that this humble man so down to earth was actually the president of the club. I just assumed he couldn't be cause of the tasks he was performing were not what one would usually expect from the Pres.
Another sign I was in the right club, humility. I just love it.
Realistically my English was not that bad when I first came in Australia, I have learned it most of my life and in school I was always above the average. I didn't have difficulties to understand people at home, in school or in the few everyday situations I faced so far. I was confident trainings wouldn't be much different. Man, how wrong I was.
I was used to play in a club where we would struggle to have 2 complete senior teams, which is about 35 players training at the same time. Here there were at least four teams training all together.

Heaps of people.

In the rare occasion someone asked me something, after the third “pardon?” I would probably understand 3/4 of the question, otherwise conversation within groups were a moment where I had to observe body language to understand when to nod, laugh or just pretend to be interested. I was really good at this! That’s what I thought, probably I just looked like a really “special” person to most of the people there.
What I didn't get in the beginning was the presence of so many players from different countries like New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, England, Canada, Scotland, Mauritius and France. Many different accents I never had the chance to hear before. The actual training was even worse, instructions for drills or exercises had words I never heard before neither in school or in movies. Luckily in this situations I needed just to  make sure I wasn't the first to perform the task and follow what others were doing. I was good at this too!
After a month or so the language barrier was slowly disappearing I got to know people better and started to make some friends. When it came to playing Rugby I wasn't that bad, I knew what I was doing and I felt familiar with it.
I was 16.000 Ks away from home, but there on that field I felt at home…

Intro

“Dad I would like to move to Perth to attend a postgraduate degree at the University of Western Australia”
That’s the story I told my father. It must have sounded really good, cause he bought it.
The real reason I moved to Australia?  to play Rugby.
Growing up in Italy, I played soccer for most of my life, at a level I was actually earning some money from it. Rugby was a word I never even heard about before, until a friend, The Mitch, one summer decided to form a rugby 7’s team with mostly soccer players and join a local tournament just to do something different. It wasn’t completely something different as I later found out, the tournament  was only an excuse to start to drink beer a bit earlier than usual on the weekend. Nothing to argue against, it was a great plan, however that contact sport for me that day was a love at first sight.
I joined the club Rugby Rho the following season and played my first full game in the second part of it scoring a hat trick. Not too bad for a beginner.
During the next three years my rugby skills improved significantly and the club got promoted from the Italian Serie C3 to Serie C1. In English, we got promoted from fighting in the mud and getting pissed (not necessarily in this order ) to fighting in the mud, playing some rugby and getting pissed afterwards. I was really enjoying it.

During those years however, I started to realise how Italy is a one sport nation. It’s all about Soccer and only soccer. Once outside the clubhouse every time rugby was brought up in a discussion the path was leading always in the same direction, the eternal comparison between rugby and soccer, which one is better? Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy soccer but I really started to hate those moments. I began to wonder how would it be to live in a place were playing rugby is not necessarily seen as an underground religious sect or a sport that you get sent to because you were too fat to play soccer and basketball.
South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in particular seemed to me the answers. The Southern Hemisphere rugby, the Tri Nations where they play the best rugby for clubs in the world, the Super 15.  Countries where kids grow up living and breathing rugby, countries where rugby is main news on TV and newspapers.
After graduating I came up with the cunning plan of going to study Downunder, Australia was the choice for its good reputation on educational system and better economic figures.
I was determined to make my dreams come true..

In the next month or so I will be posting regularly about my personal experience as a player in a rugby club in Perth. I will try to write about interesting situations I went through and some particular aspects that make playing rugby here a unique and amazing experience of life.
In the meantime feel free to make any suggestion on  something in particular you want me to talk about.

talk to you soon

Marko