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Between the glowing grill and the scampi on the fire, there was a corner of the Scampata di Malamocco where time ran backwards. Rows of jerseys, each with a number, a date and a story. They were brought by Corrado Mattoccia, founder of the “Fango e Sudore” (Mud and Sweat) Rugby Museum in Artena, who walked DanPat Rugby through them one by one.
What came out was a journey through Italian rugby history told not in statistics, but in cloth, sweat and anecdotes. And the most surprising part is how it all started almost by accident.
What is the Fango e Sudore museum?
It is a museum devoted to the history of rugby, based in Artena, a medieval town just outside Rome. It grew out of Corrado Mattoccia’s private collection and became a foundation in 2012. It holds thousands of objects and more than 1,600 jerseys, including one-off pieces from Italian and world rugby.
Artena, Mattoccia explains, is a town where from the museum door onwards you get around on foot, or by mule. But the museum wasn’t born there: it was born in a garage. When he visited the Bergamasco brothers in France, he would buy the previous season’s stadium jerseys for 10 euros while they were at training, then get them signed in the evening. Those shirts ended up in his father’s garage, where friends would gather. At some point the meeting point changed name: no longer “let’s go to the garage”, but “let’s go to the museum”.
No surprise, then, that Mauro Bergamasco is one of the founding members, while Mirco Bergamasco donated the museum’s first official Italy jersey.
From Grenoble to Scotland 2000: the turning-point jerseys
The tour starts with the heavyweights. There is the jersey from the win over France in Grenoble in 1997 (40-32), the game that handed Italy the FIRA Cup and opened the door to Europe’s top table. And there is Carlo Checchinato’s shirt from Italy’s first official Six Nations match, on 5 February 2000 in Rome: Italy 34-20 Scotland, against the reigning Five Nations champions. First game, first win.
Next to them hang jerseys from Fabio Ongaro, one of the driving forces behind the Scampata, and Andrea Zambonin, whom Mattoccia remembers as a boy at Mauro Bergamasco’s camp: he was the tallest, so he helped hang up the jerseys. Today he runs Italy’s lineout.
Zanni’s jersey and the match that never was
One of the most curious pieces never touched the grass. It is the shirt handed to Alessandro Zanni for Italy v New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup in Japan: the next day the match was cancelled because of Typhoon Hagibis and recorded as a 0-0 draw. Technically, Italy’s only “draw” with the All Blacks.
Zanni swapped that jersey with Mattoccia in exchange for something he had wanted for years: a Jonny Wilkinson shirt.
The Zebre, the All Blacks and Italy’s first steps
The oldest part of the collection goes back to the beginning. There is a jersey from Italy’s first official match, played in Barcelona in 1929 against Spain. And there is the story of the original Zebre, the invitational side born in 1973 when Australian club Randwick toured Italy: a team was put together to face them in black and white, on the Barbarians model, led by Marco Bollesan.
Then comes the All Blacks chapter. In 1977 New Zealand played in Italy for the first time, in Padua, beating a President’s XV 17-9. The collection also includes a jersey of Arturo Bergamasco, father of Mauro and Mirco.
Bettarello and the auction nobody understood
One anecdote draws more than a laugh. After a match against Australia, at the post-match function, Stefano Bettarello sees the room waving their hands in the air and thinks everyone is dancing, so he joins in. When the music stops, a man comes over to congratulate him. He had just won Nick Farr-Jones’ jersey at auction. And since the money had all gone on dinner, the Italy players had to pass the hat around.
For DanPat the story is special: Bettarello was playing for Benetton in the first rugby match he ever watched live, the one that made him fall in love with the sport.
How much is a historic jersey worth?
The question comes, inevitably, in front of the 1929 shirt. Mattoccia’s answer is blunt:
We don’t sell anything, not even if you offer astronomical sums.
For him, those jerseys have only historical value. That is also why the most precious pieces stay in Artena: at the end of the tour, the invitation is just one. Go to the museum.
Read also
- Edwards, Pienaar, McCaw: rugby’s legendary jerseys
- Perugini, Ongaro and the 2007 World Cup prank
- Scampata di Malamocco: Italy’s most incredible third half
- Checchinato and the 2000 Jersey That Changed Italian Rugby
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DANPAT Rugby — stories, analysis and features from Italian rugby.