“In rugby, ‘to pass’ is a key verb.” Interview with Gianmarco Lucchesi

The Springboks are gazelles. This nickname, given to the South African rugby team, is inappropriate. “A carnivorous monster with a dirty snout would have been more fitting,” writes Daniel Herrero in his Dictionnaire amoreux du Rugby. On Saturday 7 November, at 12.40 pm, at the Allianz Stadium in Turin (live on Sky Sport Uno, free-to-air on TV8 and streamed on NOWtv), the Azzurri will face the carnivorous monsters – pardon me, the gazelles – who top the world rugby rankings and are the reigning world champions. Among the Azzurri is Gianmarco Lucchesi, aged 26, 1.84 metres tall and weighing 110, a native of Pisa who grew up in Livorno, signed by Toulon but firmly rooted in the Italian national team (36 caps).

“In Livorno, as a child, I was excited to take up a new sport about which I knew nothing but which intrigued me in every way. And that sport would give me discipline and, at the same time, enjoyment, enthusiasm and excitement. Whenever I could, I’d go to the ground and stay there, both before and after training sessions.”

“My passion has become my profession. ‘Do a job you love,’ as they say, ‘and it will never feel like work.’ In fact, I find it hard to call rugby ‘work’, even though between training sessions on the pitch and in the gym, league matches and international fixtures, packing and travelling, flights and coaches, you’re never standing still. Even rest is active. So much so that it’s part of the training regime. And the higher the targets get – I’m thinking of the French league and the 2027 World Cup – the greater the demands become, and the more urgent the need for seriousness and concentration.”

“In rugby, no matter what or where. Because it’s my world but also my way of life; it’s everything I’ve learnt and everything I could teach. Passing on – a ball, and then experiences, knowledge and stories – is a key concept in rugby. In short, I don’t yet know how or where, but I’ll stay in rugby.”

“What comes next, but only when we win”.

“The moment before – those two or three hours of pressure and silence, concentration and visualisation, remembering how you got to that point and for whom you were doing it.”

“Stepping onto the pitch. From darkness to light, from silence to clamour, from calm to storm. Pumped full of adrenaline”.

“Thoughts, often akin to worries, always before taking to the pitch”.

“The national anthem. It’s all very well saying so, but it’s a long and solemn moment, profound and intense, in which you feel as though you’re wearing a shirt as heavy as a stadium and representing an entire nation or country. Your own.”

“Always the anthem. Big and burly, that’s what most of us are, but with a sensitive, if not tender, heart.”

“We’re all first-team players. The difference lies between those who start the match and those who finish it, not between first-team players and substitutes. They’re two different ways of playing and of coming on to play. When I start on the pitch, I get more stressed because I know that the start is important – extremely important, often decisive. When I start on the bench, I’m more relaxed, even though I know I have a duty to maintain what’s been achieved, if not to improve on it and give even more. This time I’ll start and finish in the stands, but in November we’ll be playing four matches, so we’ll need everyone.”

“Part butchery, part goldsmithing. In the organised scrums: wedged between the props, face to face, ear to ear, breath to breath against the opponents, at the heart of two steam engines. Bones, muscles, flesh. In the line-out, the technical act of the throw demands perfection in synchronisation and coordination”.

“Sometimes, I must admit, yes. Perhaps as a third-line player, so the pitch becomes a prairie. But these are just fleeting moments. I’m happy where I am.”

“The Lions Amaranto are growing; every time I go home, I go to see them, and it fills me with pride to think that I have contributed to their development. Toulon is a city steeped in rugby culture; it’s not an easy place to be because results are expected – that is, always playing to win – and rugby means history and tradition, passion and determination. Italy is a family, a home, teammates I consider brothers and people I love dearly.”