By Joel Morgan, Date: 29/5/13
On a beautiful sunny day and historic celebration, the presence of
1000 spectators, the Italian National Rugby League FIRFL, has brought home the first international victory of the year, with an overwhelming
26-4 win against the Barbarian Warriors RL.
On the slopes of Sant’Elia, in the “campo San Giorgio” of Palmi, the Azzurri have given rise to a breathtaking performance, asserting their strong physics and technical knowledge from the first sets, playing a strong first half starting through scoring a 7th minute try with Simone Carloni (conversion to Di Maura).
Since the first sets the game was characterized by high intensity physical impacts where the Italian national team gave an impression for the match ahead thanks to a high quality defense, winning all head to head contests, showing very good physical preparation.
With the development of the match, the game plan had changed with attacking on the first stage of the game with large and spectacular plays in the second half of the match.
Despite physical fatigue, the intense level of rugby league expressed by both teams remained very high.
Particularly, the effectiveness of the newcomers (Barbarian) actions help contributed through their actions and physicality, which stimulated their companions and dragged down the aggressiveness of their opposition, until the Azzurri came to a solid victory.
A highlight was the performance of De Castro and Di Pasquale.
At the end of the match the eager head coach Ty Sterry stated “the whole team and the staff was waiting for a great performance even if the group is new and certain mechanisms need to be refined and perfected. We were able to bring home the match thanks to a great and generous defence that held the opponents to make mistakes exploited at their best by the Azzurri.”
The spirit of Rugby League was evident with both teams forming a circle
after the match as the Azzurri sang the national anthem in celebration, Fratelli d’Italia.
These players battled on the field but are now brothers of league off it!
ITALIA – BARBARIAN WARRIORS 26-4
Match Report.
First Half: 7° minute try Carloni conversion Di Maura (Ita); 15° minute try non conversion Bianco (Barbarians); 20° minute try Carloni conversion Di Maura (Ita); 40° try De Castro non Conversion (Ita) partial result 16/4 Second Half: 25° try Kasparek (Ita) conversion Di Maura; 39° try Genua.
Note: 1000 spectators; Man of the match: Simone Carloni (Ita)
ITALIA: Russotto Matteo Francesco (Albinea); Parrello Marco (Albinea); De Pascali Gianni (Albinea); De Castro Jobel (Magnifici) ; Martellucci Simone (Gladiators); Kasparek Nicholas (Gladiators); Carloni Simone (Gladiators); Lodetti Aurelio (Palermo Lovers XIII); Dimaura Emiliano (Spartana Catania) ; Ferraro Luigi (Magnifici); Sirbu Costantin Daniel (Gladiators); Lanzano Arturo (Albinea); Ippoliti Alessandro (Gladiators); Genua Gianluca (Magnifici); Finocchiaro Alfio (Rectores);
Capitano: Pierluigi Gentile (Gladiators). Vice Capitano Luca Bigi (Albinea) Coach Ty Sterry. Vice coach Agatino MagrÃ. Preparatore atletico Luciano Gorla. Team Manager Riccardo Marini
BARBARIANS: Dublino Luciano (Napoli); Pablo Enriquez (Spagna);
Andrea Ferrante (Napoli); Nappi Claudio (Napoli); Carl Manu (Samoa e NZ); Ignacio Battilana (Argentina) ; John Mc Donald (Scozia); Orlando Brizzi (Italia); Felisa Vahi (Tonga); Gianandrea Dublino (Italia); Slobodan Manak (Serbia); Caruso Antonio (Italia); Cristoni Stefano (Italia); Alessandro Spina (Italia); Poli Marco (Italia).
Capitano Durant Greber (Sud Africa), Vice capitano Bianco Simone (Italia). Allenatore Joel Morgan (Australia). Final changes made before 5.30pm kick off.
Referees (on field): Roberto D’ Amico (Italia) ; Sebastian Velasquez ( Argentina )
