Brendan Gallagher: Don’t let the big boys’ Euro row put an end to Treviso dream

While the ERC blazers, club representatives from England and France and TV executives squabble endlessly over the future of a European club competition, the likes of Treviso, alas, have been reduced to impotent by-standers resigned to feeding off crumbs once top table have gorged themselves. In the recent tsunami of press reports and inflammatory statements how many times have you heard the Italian clubs mentioned? No, me neither.
It was ever thus for the Italians given the self-serving agendas of the big-hitters but Treviso’s South African coach Franco Smith believes the power politics afoot could “kill our dreams” and damage Italian rugby forever unless an equable solution is found.
“Look we are not huge players in this scenario,” says a resigned Smith who steps down next May after seven years in charge at Treviso. “We don’t really have a voice so we have to rely on others to factor us in. All I can say is that the existing Heineken Cup has been brilliant for the development of Treviso as a club. OK we haven’t reached the quarter-finals yet but that is our aim and target every year and we know one season soon that it will happen and when it does it will take Italian rugby to next level.
“I’ve been involved here for ten years now at Treviso as a player and coach and although we haven’t set the competition alight we certainly haven’t disgraced ourselves either against teams with many more resources. We go head to head with some of Europe’s best sides every season and get closer and more competitive every time.
“Every player needs targets. The Heineken Cup allows our players to dream and to kill that dream now would be devastating. One of the reasons that we can now keep good quality Italian players at the club and ensure that Treviso remains firmly an Italian team – which is so important in my opinion – is that we can currently offer them the assurance of top level European Cup rugby.
“They don’t have to look elsewhere although, of course, players are free to move if they want. That European carrot, on top of our involvement in the Rabo, is vital to us because it fuels ambition. The extra pressure of Heineken Cup rugby is such an important staging post to the top of the mountain, Test rugby. Take that away and there will be consequences, Italy needs a foothold in the premier European event whatever it is.
“Financially European rugby is a considerable benefit to the club and if you took that away we would suffer no question. We have a good loyal sponsor but are still a smallish club with heavy travel costs. There’s no such thing as a local derby for Treviso rugby, the airport cafe is our second home.”

Although leaving next May after a long stint at the coalface including three years as a player you can sense the concern of the former Springbok fly-half who believes Treviso are now closer than ever to a genuine breakthrough after decades of patient groundwork. During his time Smith has re-Italianised the club with an absolute minimum of overseas players, none of them big names, and developed a level of consistency that has previously eluded them. 34 of the 38 players registered professionally at Treviso this season are Italian and if push comes to shove they could field two separate packs of capped Italian forwards.
It’s been some turnaround. Remarkably Treviso only had one player in Italy’s 2007 World Cup squad – flanker Silvio Orlando who wasn’t in the starting XV – while four years later they boasted 13 players in the squad that travelled to New Zealand. Treviso currently contribute 17 players to Jacques Brunel’s national squad.
“It’s early days this season but generally I would say 2013, if you start back in January, has been the best and strongest time in our professional history,” continues Smith. “It feels like things are coming together. We can still produce the occasional sub-par performance, like we did against Llanelli Scarlets recently, but Treviso rugby has grown up and we have enough professionalism and experience now not to produce two bad performances on the trot.
“The enemy of Italian rugby is always the away games, Italian players have inherited some of the old French philosophy in that respect and my focus has been for Treviso to replicate some our home performances when we go on out travels. There really is no reason, except perhaps mentally, why a team should not play as well on the road.”
For a while now Smith, with almost too many young Italian players wanting to join, has been arguing that Treviso be permitted to run a second or feeder team that be allowed to arrange development matches – possibly against Aviva Premiership A teams on a mini tour – and to also compete in the Italian T10 Club championship which has become something of a backwater since Treviso and Zebre joined the Rabo in 2010.
Politics has also reared its ugly head here with the other smaller Italian clubs consistently blocking such a move because they envisage all their promising youngsters travelling to join Treviso even earlier than they currently do. You can see their point but those very same prospects probably need to be exposed to the next level as soon as possible.
“We are losing an opportunity that’s for sure because unfortunately, and I use that word ironically, we have too many promising players and they do not have the structure to be given the best chance to develop and shine. Italian rugby must be careful not to take our eyes off the ball. All the talk is constantly about when are Italy going to produce a fly-half like Diego Dominguez and I am thinking hang on let’s also make sure that Italy’s conveyor belt of quality front five forwards and loosies is still in good working order. Let’s not lose what we already have.”
Let’s not lose what we already have, now there’s a thought to conjure with given what’s going on in the smokey corridors of power. If any of those concerned ever has a notion to talk to anybody in Italy I will happily provide the contact numbers. It’s good to talk.