Born in Ayrshire, he first experienced rugby at Fettes College and attended his first international match at Murrayfield, so it would come as no surprise to find that George Biagi is finding sleep difficult to come by as he counts down the days to his own playing debut at the famous old Edinburgh venue next weekend.
The 29-year-old second row will not be appearing in the navy, or even red, of Scotland, however. Instead, he will be lining up against the country of his birth in the Azzurri blue of visitors Italy.
Biagi is one of rugby’s great latecomers, having made his Test debut a year ago, but he is loving every minute of it.
George Biagi will be lining up against the country of his birth in the Azzurri blue of Italy
‘This is the thing you dream of as a schoolboy, going to Murrayfield,’ he said. ‘I know it looks like I’ve come late but, to me, it seems to have happened all of a sudden.
‘I was meant to go on a South-North America tour with Italy in 2012, but I fell gravely ill with mumps and was in hospital for quite a while. I lost a lot of weight and couldn’t go, so I thought that might be it for international rugby.
‘Then my club Aironi folded and I left Italy for Bristol but had a few injuries and didn’t play much. I came back to Italy and joined Zebre in 2013 and, since then, things have just grown.
‘Luckily the chance came back. I got my debut against England last year and it is fantastic to play in this Six Nations.’
Whether it is his Ayrshire upbringing or the length of time it has taken him to reach this point, there is a distinct self-deprecating style about Biagi. He thinks he has been ‘lucky’, as if the unstinting hours he has put into improving himself has little to do with it.
While Italy have lost their opening RBS Six Nations Championship games to Ireland and England, they pushed both sides close for the first hour and Biagi emerged from the Twickenham encounter, his fifth Test match, with a place in the BBC Team of the Week.
He hopes he can build on that performance against an expected second-row combination of Jonny Gray and Jim Hamilton. It is intriguing that Tim Swinson, the Glasgow lock called up this week for the injured Richie Gray, was unaware of Biagi and his Scottish connection. Those roots are strong, tying him to current North Ayrshire Council leader Willie Gibson, George’s uncle.
Biagi (right) and Giovambattista Venditti tackle England captain Chris Robshaw at Twickenham
Biagi’s grandparents emigrated to Ayrshire in the 1940s, part of a wave of immigrants from Barga in Italy.
Both George and his father Michael were born in Scotland as the family ran restaurants, ice-cream shops and the Aberlour pub in Saltcoats.
Michael married an Italian and returned to Barga in 1989 to set up a property firm. They sent George back for schooling at Fettes College before he, too, returned to Milan University to study international economics.
Barga is a flourishing tourist town seemingly full of Italian Scots, bizarrely, with its own Pesce e Patate — fish and chip festival — in homage to cucina Scozzesi imported from Ayrshire.
The local stadium is named after Falkirk-born Italian footballer Johnny Moscardini, while a permanent Scottish exhibition houses old photographs of the Ideal Café in Irvine, St George’s Café, Paisley and Marchetti’s in Glasgow among others.
‘There is a lot of culture between our countries,’ added George, ‘but I feel more Italian than Scottish. I am proud of my Scottish roots.
‘I love my family in Ayrshire and come home to see them when I can. But now, playing for Italy, I consider myself 100-per-cent Italian and I will be on Saturday.’
Biagi’s rugby story is an instructive one. In times gone by, it was not unusual for players to emerge late into the Test arena.
Roy Laidlaw, the Scotland Grand Slam-winning scrum-half, famously made his Scotland debut at 26.
Biagi played football and basketball as a youngster and was so alien to rugby when he started at Fettes that he says he was ‘kept out on the wing where I could do least damage’.
In the professional era, many believe that if a player has not pushed his head above the parapet by 18, he never will.
Yet, in a country as small as Scotland, there is little doubt that too many players who develop into more rounded, skilled athletes at 20, 21 and 22, if not later, are being lost to the game.
Biagi’s love for rugby may have benefited from not coming through a factory system in his teens, and he is eager now to emulate brother Corrado.
‘He likes to tell me he is the only member of the family who has won at Murrayfield — he played for Fettes when they won the Scottish Schools Cup (2008/09) — so we’ll see about that at the weekend.
‘For me, the focus is not on Scotland now. Your aim is to hold on to the jersey. But, when you lose two on the trot, the only focus is on winning the next game.
‘I’ve had calls from family asking for tickets and jerseys — lots of family that I didn’t know I had!
‘It would be great to beat Scotland at Murrayfield but it will be very tough. They have come a long way in the last few years.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2963519/Scots-born-Biagi-insists-ignore-tartan-ties-strike-hammer-blow-Italy-homecoming.html#ixzz3Sf9P4OCR
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