It was under rather different circumstances to this coming Sunday’s Women’s Six Nations fixture between Ireland and Italy that Michela Este first set foot in Donnybrook Stadium.
The flanker’s first trip to the Dublin 4 ground almost a decade ago was as a spectator to the men of Leinster.
Although she cannot remember the exact details of the opposition or the result, it proved to be part of her early exposure to the game of rugby.
Accenture Analysis: Read Nick Mallett on RBS 6 Nations Round 4! At the time Este was living for an academic year in Dublin while participating in an Erasmus exchange programme at University College Dublin (UCD), which is a 20-minute walk from Donnybrook. Having grown up in the city of Brescia at the foot of the Alps, close to Milan, the then student was unaware of the existence of women’s rugby. During the 2014 Women’s Six Nations campaign, I interviewed Este but, as is the nature of sport, much has changed in two years. The big news for the Azzurre in 2015 was that due to three consecutive wins over Scotland, France and Wales in the third, fourth and fifth rounds of the tournament they finished the Six Nations in third position – their best ever placing in the tournament. As a result of last year’s victories and then beating Scotland two weeks ago in Bologna, it guarantees qualification to the Women’s Rugby World Cup to be held in Ireland in summer 2017 for the first time since 2002. Coincidentally, University College Dublin’s campus will host the tournament’s pool stages. Another shift for Italy’s women is an injection of youth. Este emphasises the importance of having an influx of players who have picked up rugby at earlier ages, “We have more players in the team who began playing rugby when they were very young. These girls are really great because they have such a good understanding of the game. They really have a great sense of movement and skills that some of us older players may not have because we were much older starting. “The younger girls are really good for the squad not just because of these qualities but because of how talented they are as well. In particular our backs players like Beatrice Rigoni and Michela Sillari are very, very fast and highly skilled. We have a really good mix of youth and experience.” Despite losing their opening two fixtures to France and England, Este is confident that now World Cup qualification is secure that she and her teammates can equal last year’s overall performance, “Of course we would like to equal the same result as last year with three wins. We still have two matches to play, so I believe we can do it again. We are going to be able to play with less pressure knowing we have qualified for the World Cup.” Although, Ireland beat Italy in both 2014 and 2015, both matches held special memories for Este due to her Emerald Isle connections. Two years ago, the Azzurre had the experience of playing in the Aviva Stadium, “The whole place, and the field, everything it was all perfect. The match was obviously not so good for us but I think it was still an amazing experience to play in such a big stadium.” Perhaps more striking was Este’s encounter with a former teammate during last season’s Women’s Six Nations meeting in Florence. Although she usually plies her trade in the back row, Este was called upon to play in the front row and in doing so she literarily came face to face with a colleague from her UCD days. Fiona O’Brien came on in the second half as a replacement prop. The player reminisces, “We played the second half both in the front row, which was really, really cool, we exchanged pins at the end of the match. It was really great to be facing Fiona in the scrum.” Returning to her compatriots, Este explains the importance of a team bonding ritual that is uniquely Italian – the camera caffè – the coffee room, that the Italian women will always set up regardless of whether they are playing in Turin or Port Talbot, Bologna or Dublin complete with Italian coffee, “it is always one of the first things for us to pack in our rucksacks!” Este continues expounding on the role of the camera caffè beyond grabbing a caffeine hit and a taste of home, “It is really important to have our camera caffè for the newer girls because it is a good way to get to know each other and build understanding in the squad. I think when you have a good and happy group off the pitch it is a lot easier to play well on the pitch, so our camera caffè is very important.” Off the pitch, Este has quite a balancing act, now living in Treviso, so she can play for Benetton Treviso’s women’s side, she has a day job working in financial services while also completing post-graduate studies in economics. However, this does not faze the forward, “It is not like a sacrifice because I love what I am doing, I enjoy all the parts of my life so it is not too hard, although sometimes you can be tired in the evenings when you have to go to training but I like it, so it isn’t difficult.” With 47 caps to her name, Este is determined to keep going with the Azzurre up to and including the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup in order to bring her career to a fitting conclusion, “For me the best thing is that the World Cup is in Ireland and I think I could not wish for anything better because I started playing rugby there and to hopefully finish there with the national team for me would mean everything, also with World Cup being held at UCD. There is nothing better!” In the meantime a win against the Irish in Donnybrook would certainly be cause for celebrations in the camera caffè for Este and Italy’s women.
Click here for the complete 2016 Women’s Six Nations fixture list
