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