An Italian job well done

The delight etched on the face of Alessandro Troncon at the climax of Saturday's deserved victory for the Italians at Murrayfield was as much tinged with relief as elation.When Troncon was growing up in the early 1980s, and watching his father and uncle involved in rugby in Treviso, north-east of Venice, the youngster had to accept that the vast majority of his compatriots cared solely for the likes of Paolo Rossi, Marco Tardelli and Dino Zoff, and that the "weird game with the funny-shaped ball" hardly registered on the scale.

Scanning the pages of Gazzetta Dello Sport even a decade ago, there was ample coverage of basketball, and cycling, and Formula One, but as Troncon related at the week-end, his path to the dolce vita has been shrouded in anonymity, which might now begin to vanish as the Azzurri gradually climb the global rankings.

In advance of Italy's historic triumph in Edinburgh, much had been made of the fact that Scott Murray was equalling the 82-cap Scottish record, which had been established by Gregor Townsend. Hardly anybody noticed that Troncon was participating in his 93rd international, and akin to fine wine, this redoubtable fellow seems to grow better with age.

irst selected as a 20 year-old against Spain in 1994, his early promise was in danger of being sapped by a constant diet of second-rate tussles, watched by a tiny sprinkling of aficionados, but he is a resilient, unquenchable ambassador for the pursuit in which he excels.

"We had to fight to earn any respect at all and before we were admitted to the new Six Nations Championship in 2000, the public couldn't have told you the names of any of our players, because there was nothing in the papers, nothing on the TV channels and Serie A commanded huge amounts of attention, so somebody such as myself quickly realised there was no point in moaning that we were being ignored: the best statement we could make was in recording victories and gaining credibi-lity. Of course, it didn't happen overnight but when I think of how rugby was perceived throughout Italy when I began my career, we have taken serious strides forward."

A fortnight ago, Troncon, as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and as unyielding as the Incredible Hulk, stole the man-of-the-match award from under Jonny Wilkinson's nose, following his confreres' defiant performance in slipping to a narrow 20-7 defeat at Twicken-ham, and the maestro duly collected the same prize for his part in the humiliation of a Scottish collective, who appeared under the misapprehension they were competing in a sevens tournament for the opening few moments.

Amid the madness, with normally reliable characters such as Chris Cusiter, indulging in wild flings at which even Casanova might have balked, Troncon oozed purpose, penetration and pragmatism, three of the qualities which explain why he is held in lofty regard at Clermont Auvergne.

Troncon was was one of nine non-Italian-based personnel in the starting XV, which begs the question as to why there are so many doom-laden headlines surrounding the imminent exodus of Cale-donian talent to England, Ireland and France.

Oblivious to the Murrayfield hosts striving desperately to claw back a 21-point deficit, Troncon was urging, cajoling and instructing his pack to master the basics and remember that they are the equal of most rivals.

It worked. "We knew that, despite scoring those three tries within six minutes, the Scots would come charging at us and we had to be streetwise and show we had the ability to prevent them achieving a recovery.

"Obviously, it took some of the pressure off us to build a big lead, but we recognised it would count for nothing if we didn't finish the job, and I've endured enough disappointments to realise that sport throws up funny things," said Troncon.

"When they narrowed the gap to 24-17, I could see the expressions on some of the younger players' faces. It was like: Oh no, here we go again.' But I talked to the boys and Marco Bortolami, the Italian captain reminded them that they had been offered an opportunity to end the losing sequence on the road and that the win would be ours if we stuck to our guns and got the basics right. Fortunately, we cranked up a gear or two in the last 20 minutes and the forwards were immense, so we achieved our aim."

For a spell, at least, Italian rugby is basking in positivity, while the country's football is tarnished by corruption and crowd trouble. Indeed, yesterday's Gazzetta Dello Sport featured the rout of Frank Hadden's men on the front page.

As unwelcome as it may be for Scots to keep setting new records, of the unwanted variety, nobody could possibly begrudge Troncon his long-awaited starring role.