Italian rugby urged to capitalise on football's decline

Italian rugby and its new Magners League entrants must seize the moment to take advantage of football's slide in the country and soar out of the newspaper "death pages", Aironi coach Franco Bernini said yesterday.

Aironi, which means Herons, are one of two Italian teams which will compete for the first time alongside Scottish, Irish and Welsh sides.

Football dominates Italian sports culture and the pages of newspapers like the famous Gazzetta dello Sport but the national side's woeful showing in the recent World Cup could give rugby a chance to gain more of a foothold amid a growing fan base.

"We have to take advantage of this moment when soccer is suffering," said Bernini ahead of his amalgamated team playing their first match against French side Stade Montois in a friendly tonight. "I don't buy Gazzetta. We are never there and if we are we are at the back in what I call the death pages. We now have to be the advertisement for Italian rugby."

The idea of Aironi and Treviso entering the Magners League is to boost the quality of Italian players and competitiveness of the national side, which again finished bottom of the Six Nations this year.

"We are excited for the first match. It's a new project," said Bernini, whose Aironi side is an amalgamation of eight clubs and will play home games in the northern towns of Viadana and Reggio Emilia.