Since Italy joined the RBS 6 Nations my fondest memories would have to be the two wins over France in 2011 and 2013.
It was such an important step for Italian rugby, but I also had my own reasons for taking pleasure in wins over France.
When I started in TV in the early 1990s I covered World Cups and as much rugby as I could.
I was at Telepiù and in 1997 Italy were going to Grenoble to play France. I was living in Milan but convinced the director of the station that we needed to cover the game.
I went from Milan to Grenoble and back in one day. Having told the director of the station that we had to get footage of a first-ever Italian win over France, I was very grateful they won. France had won the Grand Slam so if I had come back after an Italian loss it would have been tough.
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That game was a stepping stone because it gave Italy credibility. They had to show that from a sporting point of view that they deserved to be there and that game helped.
I’d loved rugby from a very young age and went to watch a game between Italy and France in Milan in 1976. That was my home city and I was 13 at the time. The next week I went to try out and play rugby. I really enjoyed it and started playing regularly. Not many people played rugby at that age at the time in Italy, where mini rugby hadn’t really taken off yet.
I was already a fan though because my brother Franco had found an oval ball one day and we would play with it at home.
Then we went to see that France match and after that I started playing. I was a prop almost from the start. I would also play wherever I was needed so as a youngster I played everywhere from prop to fly-half. Obviously they are quite different but I managed one half at ten, and another match at nine, wherever they needed me.
I played until I was 22-23 and then stopped because of work but started again after 30 for a few years. I played for the second team in Milan, in the reserve championship.
In Milan later you had different teams, the famous one Amatori Rugby Milano where Diego Dominguez played among others, and then the CUS Milano where I played.
When I stopped playing because of work, I was working for a radio station. I remember playing one match where I played the first half, then had to go and do my radio work from a telephone box nearby because there were no mobile phones at the time. That day I went back to watch the end of the game but after that, because of my work which involved lots of Saturdays and Sundays, I had to stop playing.
My first job was with a radio station specialising in horse races and then from 1988 I moved into television, first with Mediaset then I went to work with Telepiù. Then up to two years ago I had stuck with Telepiù which became Sky before joining Dmax. Throughout I was working on the RBS 6 Nations.
Vittorio Munari with co-commentator Antonio Raimondi for DMAX
I started working on rugby quite young, and in 1991 I went to the World Cup in England. That was where I worked with Vittorio Munari for the first time, although I knew him a little bit. It wasn’t like now, he was there for the TV commentary and I was the person doing the interviews.
That was where I really got to know him and now we still work together.
In terms of the Championship, I started watching it in the 70s with the TV in black and white. Colour television arrived a bit later in Italy. So in the mid-70s that’s probably when I started watching. We didn’t have that many opportunities, but in our squad we had a film with the try by the Barbarians, in 1973. We would meet up in the club and watch that film. That was one of my first rugby memories.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a few more since!
Antonio Raimondi is a rugby commentator for DMax, He was in conversation with Paul Eddison
