Date: 14/3/14
It’s arrived, the moment to award the first trophy of the Italian Rugby League season. The Federazione Italiana Rugby Football League (FIRFL) officially opens the curtain on their 2014 season on Saturday at Avezzano stadium where there will be great celebration of rugby, which will see the 4th Coppa Italia won.
The program will begin with the event presentation at 11.30am right at the stadium in the Abruzzo based town, then a tasty lunch between all participants and guests, will watch the Six Nations Rugby Union match between Italy and England followed by the start and winner of the Triangular Coppa Italia Finals.
A contender for the trophy will be the Roman team, the Usag Lazio who last year raised the trophy to the sky at Nicolosi (Catania). In addition to the ‘capitolini’ there will be another “old acquaintance” of the FIRFL, namely the Spartans Sicilia, while the absolute novelty is represented by the presence of the new Tuscan formation of Becker League of Pieve a Nievole (a village nearby Montecatini Terme).
Talking about this “new entry” is the Federation’s Sport Director Beppe Moncada. “We are very excited about this new affiliation and evidently this is the signal that the movement is growing at a national level in general and in particular in Tuscany. Evidently this new club was encouraged and driven by the work of Magnifici Firenze (a foundation club that participates in the r-Evolution League) and thus we decided to form this group, composed of a team with a very low average age, which will exclusively play only rugby league. For six months, we have been training for the Italian Cup and the idea is to create a youthful setup that would give continuity to the project.”
The organizational chart of Becker League sees Walter Nadio Mazzucco as president, his vice-president is Rossella Impallazzo, the secretary is Marco Capaccioli and Samuel Arlandini and Giordano Guerrieri are committee members.
A week after the national Coppa Italia Finals event in Italy, the FIRFL celebrates a great international event on March 21 in Watamu (in Kenya), the national rugby league team will challenge the African country’s representatives in their first engagement of 2014. A match that will also have a strong social significance with the Azzurri athletes who, during the period of their stay in Kenya, will be protagonists of volunteer works such as the maintenance of some city orphanages.