Mauro Bergamasco: The Italy Flanker Forced to Play Scrum-Half | Rugby World

Mauro Bergamasco is in his car heading down memory lane, as he discussed with Alex Spink.

One of Italy’s greatest players was reflecting on rugby’s evolving approach to versatile players. The conversation inevitably turned to February 7, 2009, and a fateful afternoon at Twickenham when the Azzurri started their star openside flanker at scrum-half.

Today, deploying forwards in backline positions, or vice versa, is commonplace. André Esterhuizen seamlessly transitioning from inside-centre to the Springbok back row doesn’t raise eyebrows. Nor does Ben Earl switching from back row to centre for England, or Kwagga Smith covering wing for South Africa, or Tiennan Costley making the same switch from flanker for Japan.

Thirty years after rugby turned professional, hybrid players are increasingly valued. They allow teams to bolster their bench strength and maximize the collective output of 23 players over 80 minutes.

It wasn’t like that in 2009 when Bergamasco, an openside with 69 caps, received a directive from then-Italy head coach Nick Mallett. Mallett wasn’t seeking tactical advantage, or a 6-2 or 7-1 forward-back split on the bench. He was desperate. And, as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

The former Springbok No 8 had run out of fit scrum-halves for the game against England. He looked at Bergamasco, a proven defender with a reliable kick, and thought, ‘why not?’

The decision was met with widespread criticism, and for years, neither man revisited the episode. Now, they’ve agreed to discuss what happened and the lessons learned.

Why did Italy flanker Mauro Bergamasco play scrum-half in the Six Nations?

The start of the 2009 Six Nations found Italy without a fit scrum-half of Test quality. Simon Picone, Pietro Travagli, and Pablo Canavosio were all sidelined with injuries. Mallett, highly respected, decided that Bergamasco was the best available option given his experience and versatility.

Publicly, Mallett contended that Bergamasco would tackle more Englishmen at half-back than he would playing in the back row. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

Mallett: “It was needs-must. When I took the job I took it for granted that Italy would have enough nines. I never imagined a situation where a country would struggle to field a scrum-half capable of competing at international or even club level.

“But they just didn’t have any. Of the ten first division clubs in Italy, only three scrum-halves were qualified to play for the Azzurri. It was a position overseas players tended to fill.

“I should have thought about the lack of depth in the position long before but you don’t. You’re always thinking about which is the best player. I knew there were two or three, but when they all got injured I was really in trouble.

“I was between a rock and a hard place and no one understood it. They said, ‘This guy is off his head. What’s he doing playing a flanker at scrum-half? He’s making Mauro play at nine, making him look an incompetent, inadequate rugby player.’ But I didn’t have another option. It was a dreadful situation.

“I even tried to talk Alessandro Troncon, Italy’s most-capped scrum-half, into putting the jersey on again. He said, ‘No way, not fit enough.’ I remember speaking to the president. ‘I don’t aim for to do this,’ I said. ‘But find me another scrum-half who’s qualified to play’.”

The build-up

Bergamasco: “You sense a lot from how the team receives the news, the level of trust they have in that decision. In this instance, 50% of the team didn’t agree with the choice to move me to No 9.

“This is more difficult because on the field you give everything you have to your team-mates. If just one player doesn’t believe in that it becomes difficult. One of them said to me, ‘What are you f**king doing? Why did you say yes?’

“I said I accepted because it was a question the coaches asked of me in an emergency. There was just a young No 9, Giulio Toniolatti, who they preferred to put on the bench and utilize in the event of a problem, which they did in the second half.”

Mallett: “I got Sergio Parisse and Troncon together and chatted to them about Mauro and the other option, Edoardo Gori. They said, ‘Listen, playing at Twickenham against England is a massive, massive pressure cooker. For a position like nine, it really is tough.’

“But they agreed we should start Mauro. He was kicking well from the base. Obviously, his defence was outstanding. And because he was dangerous over the ball as an openside, I thought it could operate.”

The match itself…

England, in their first Six Nations game under Martin Johnson, scored five tries and won 36-11. Italy has never beaten England in 32 attempts. On 15 of those occasions, England scored 40 points or more. So 2009 wasn’t a particularly low point, but it’s not remembered fondly.

England bagged three tries in the first half-hour, two after Bergamasco was sucked into rucks rather than patrolling the fringe, the third after his pass sailed over the head of Gonzalo Garcia and Riki Flutey capitalized.

Mallett: “Under the pressure of an England team playing at home and determined to put a lot of pressure on him, Mauro froze. He just hadn’t had enough experience in that position and that was on me.

“I took him off at half-time and in the changing rooms said, ‘I want to apologize to you, Mauro, and to the whole team. This hasn’t worked. I was hoping it would. I take all the blame for this. I’m helluva sorry.’

“It was a very, very embarrassing afternoon for us all. Mauro was in tears. He felt he’d let the team down. I had a long chat with him. I said, ‘Mauro, listen, I did it because I had confidence in you, because you’re an experienced player, because you’re a guy I can count on in any Test match.’

“I thought there was an outside chance we could get away with it. But we didn’t. The Italian rugby media were very critical of what I’d done. I can understand that.”

Bergamasco: “You sense a lot from how the team receives the news, the level of trust they have in that decision. In this instance, 50% of the team didn’t agree with the choice to move me to No 9.

“Some positional switches are less complex. From nine to ten, for example. But for this there was not enough time for me to prepare.”

The lesson and the legacy…

Bergamasco: “You cannot switch from the forwards to playing No 9 without proper preparation. I could not say that in 2009. I can now.”

Mallett: “If I could have that time again with Italy, I’d spend the first couple of months assessing the strength in depth of every position. That way I’d have seen we had a serious problem at scrum-half.

“I’d then say, ‘Okay, what do we do if in the Six Nations we have only one fit nine and no one who is able to come off the bench?’

“I’d then have assigned Mauro to at least two sessions a week with Troncon to work on his box kicking, positional play and passing from the base. That was my mistake. We should have given the guy two months of contact practices where he was put under pressure and adapted his game to it.

“Instead, I put Mauro in at Twickenham in front of 82,000. I asked much too much of him.

“Look at how Rassie Erasmus works with his players nowadays. Guys like André and Kwagga he gives absolute confidence in their ability to play in the position that he wants to move them to.

“Erasmus is looking for hybrid players and he puts time into developing them.

“Unfortunately, the way we went about it with Mauro had probably a 10% chance of working. Had I prepared him properly it would have been nearer 50%. You live and learn.”