Time.news – In Six Nations rugby, with more media catwalks and less mud, Italy floats with difficulty, just back from the sixth consecutive wooden spoon. But the blue oval ball was born well before that lucky debut in the European elite tournament on February 5, 2000, when we beat Scotland. We were reminded of this by a double mourning in this cruel April: on Sunday 11 the former Lazio prop and Italian captain Massimo Cuttitta passed away at the age of 54 for Covid in Albano Laziale, and the historic captain and ct Marco Bollesan, born 79 years ago in Chioggia but raised and disappeared, in Genoa, died of an incurable disease after he had defeated the coronavirus last year. “The rugby family mourns two great champions”, commented the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò.
The Bollesan legend
Forty-seven times blue, 34 times captain of the national team, technical commissioner at the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, team manager in the 2003 and 2007 world championships, founder of the Zebre. ‘Legend’ is not an overused term when it is linked to the name of Marco Bollesan. Azzurro number 193, the only rugby player included by Coni in the Walk of Fame that crosses the Foro Italico Park, would have turned eighty on 7 July. Since his debut with Italy, not even twenty-two on April 14, 1963 in Grenoble against France, an institution of blue Rugby, a flag, a symbol in years when the oval ball was very far from today’s spotlight and the Six Nations, for our Rugby, more a dream than an ambition.
A Venetian who grew up in Genoa
Born in Chioggia but raised in Genoa, flanker in the ranks of the Cus of the Ligurian capital, after having established himself as one of the best third lines on the national scene, he moved to Partenope winning the title of 1966 Italian champion before returning to his club of ‘origin, touching for three years the tricolor title with the Genoese and then conquering it in 1975 with the Brescia shirt, in the same year of his last appearance in blue against Czechoslovakia in Reggio Calabria
The 1973 South African tour
In his career he had had the privilege of captaining Italy on the occasion of the historic South African tour in 1973, one of the turning points in the history of our local oval ball and, in the same year, he was one of the founding members of the Zebre. Appointed technical commissioner, in tandem with Gianni Franceschini, in the first term of the Mondelli presidency, he had led the national team to the first 1987 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, almost entering the quarter-finals. Between 2002 and 2008 he returned to the staff of the National team as Team Manager during the management of John Kirwan and Pierre Berbizier, the last professional steps of a life entirely dedicated to the service of Italian Rugby.
The memory of Innocenti
“For the rugby players of my generation, for anyone who practiced the sport between the 60s and the 80s, but also for those who came after Marco Bollesan he was an example – said the president of Fir, Marzio Innocenti, expressing the condolences of the Federation – the epitome of the brave rugby player, the symbol of a game where mud, sweat and blood represented the best honorific titles. He helped to make Rugby known in our country well before the professional revolution of 1996, embodying the spirit of Italian Rugby for over two decades and also in the years following his retirement from the field a series of strategic roles for the Federation. We will be eternally grateful to him for his extraordinary contribution and I, in particular, will always carry his teachings in my heart and the honor that he recognized by assigning me, as technical commissioner, the ranks of captain of the national team during his management. We are close to the daughters Miride and Mare lla and all his family – he concluded – Italian Rugby has lost one of its favorite children “.
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Massimo Cuttitta
‘Mouse’, the gentle giant
Massimo Cuttitta died on 11 April in Albano Laziale at the age of 54 due to complications that arose following the positivity to Covid-19. Massimo, Azzurro n. 423, had made his debut with Italy in Naples in 1990 against Poland, then wearing the national team jersey on another 69 occasions until 2000, the year of his international retirement after having lived as a protagonist his debut in the Six Nations against Scotland, in unforgettable success on February 5th at the Flaminio. On 22 occasions, Cuttitta had led the Italian Rugby team as captain. Born in Latina, but raised in rugby in South Africa like his twin Marcello, Massimo had worn the shirts of L’Aquila, Amatori Calvisano and Milan and that of the London Harlequins in his career, taking part in two editions of the World and dressing the black and white of the Barbarians on several occasions.
Experiences abroad
After the experience of the other side of the Channel, he had held the role of player-coach for numerous Italian clubs – Bologna, Rugby Roma, Alghero and Leonessa – before joining as forward coach in Edinburgh and, from there, to the Scottish federation, relaunching with their work the Highlander pack on the international stage. More recently, he had put his experience as a scrum coach at the service of emerging internationals such as Romania, Canada and Portugal, acting as consultant for their respective technical staffs.
The arrival at the Six Nations
“All Italian Rugby is intimately touched by the death of Massimo, one of the symbols of the national team who, thanks to an extraordinary generation of players, gained access to the Six Nations Tournament with a series of unforgettable performances in the 1990s”, he declared the president of Fir, Marzio Innocenti. “We did not have the opportunity to share the blue jersey, but the love for our colors had formed a strong, natural bond between us. Cuttitta was not only an incredible servant of Italian Rugby and an excellent interpreter of the role of left prop. , but also an appreciated ambassador of our movement abroad, coach of the forwards for Scotland and other national teams who helped bring to the stage of the Rugby World Cup. ” “In this tragic moment – concluded the Federal President – my thoughts, those of the Council and of all Italian Rugby go to Marcello and to the whole Cuttitta family, already deeply touched a few days ago by the death of Massimo’s mother, Marcello and Michele”. In memory of Massimo Cuttitta, the Federal President has ordered that a minute of silence be observed next weekend before the kick-off of the matches of the Italian Peroni Championship.
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