LONG READ Italy great Mirco Bergamasco – ‘I never wanted to be a coach, but found I liked it’

Mirco Bergamasco is one of rugby’s great adventurers. He played in multiple countries and three different versions of the sport. As well as the 89 caps he earned for the Azzurri, he also featured for Italy’s sevens and rugby league teams.

As such, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that now he’s taking his first steps as a coach, he isn’t following a conventional path.

There was no call to the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) to see if he could start with an age-group team, or to one of their United Rugby Championship (URC) sides or the country’s Serie A Elite clubs, or Stade Français or Racing 92, the two Parisian teams he represented in France’s Top 14.

Instead, after a 17-year playing career – impacted by a serious knee injury in 2012 – ended in 2018, he accepted an invitation to start coaching with RC Aubenas Vals in National 1, France’s third tier, and began learning his new trade.

“The first year I was at Aubenas I coached like I expected to be coached,” Bergamasco tells Rugby Pass. “The problem was that it didn’t work. I was very demanding and didn’t listen to the players.

“I had to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the players I was coaching. This was my starting point for my growth and development and that has greatly helped me in the following years.

“The first two years were tough going as I transitioned from a player to a coach. After those first two years I calmed down and began thinking as a coach.”

Since then, he has seen a fair bit of France as he gained his necessary coaching certificates. He left Aubenas-Val les Bains in the south-east and made his way to Charente, two hours east of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. Next came a sojourn in Brittany with Stade Nantais before he pitched up at Limoges.

I’m more stick than carrot, though I use the carrot if the players deserve it.

It is where he remains, as skills and defence coach for a side in Federale 1, France’s fifth tier.

“You want your players to understand how they can get better,” he says. “You can’t bore them, and you have to make sure they are always focused on what you want.

“I’m more stick than carrot, though I use the carrot if the players deserve it. When I meet a group for the first time, the stick is more useful for getting your message across. I want them to understand how I work and what we are trying to achieve.”

In his playing days, Bergamasco was among a generation of players who made their Italy debuts under John Kirwan, and who were then encouraged to pursue a career in England or France.

He, elder brother Mauro and Sergio Parisse all moved to Stade Francais where they won two Top 14 titles. Mirco later moved across the French capital to Racing 92 before spells back in Italy with Rovigo and Zebre, while he also featured in the fledgling American league with Sacramento Express.

They weren’t alone. Marco Bortolami captained Gloucester and Narbonne, Martin Castrogiovanni made his name at Leicester Tigers, and later Toulon. Alessandro Troncon and Gonzalo Canale played for Clermont Auvergne, and Andrea Masi for Biarritz, Racing and Wasps. Leonardo Ghiraldini was another who moved to Leicester, and he, Salvatore Perugini and Andrea Lo Cicero packed down for French giants Toulouse.

They were a generation who made their mark with Italy. They helped the Azzurri win their first away point in the Six Nations in 2006 when they drew 18-18 with Wales in Cardiff.

A year on, they were part of the first Italy team to win away in the Six Nations, seeing off Scotland 37-17 at Murrayfield. A week later their 23-20 win over Wales in Rome marked the first time the Azzurri had won twice in a Six Nations, a record they matched in 2013, and only bettered last year.

Many of that group have moved into coaching. Bortolami has made the biggest impression by leading Benetton to a URC quarter-final and European Challenge Cup semi-final, having succeeded Kieran Crowley when the Kiwi became Italy coach.

Masi and Parisse are on the Toulon staff, Mauro Bergamasco has worked in Italy’s lower tiers, Castrogiovanni runs coaching schools and Troncon has worked with the national team and Zebre.

Also among that group was Fabio Ongaro. He too is following a path in coaching and is quick to point out that it is only a small percentage that have gone from playing to coaching, and that no common theme links those that have.

That said, he is into his fifth year as scrum coach at Benetton where he works alongside Bortolami, and he recently signed a two-year extension.

I wanted to live in London, rather than out in St Albans where we trained, so Eddie would call me late at night to check I was in

The Venetian-born hooker’s overseas adventure came at Saracens, where he came under the influence of Eddie Jones, who worked as a coaching consultant under Alan Gaffney.

The future England and Japan coach is famed for his work ethic and keeping his players and coaches on their toes, something Ongaro experienced first-hand.

“I wanted to live in London, rather than out in St Albans where we trained, so he would call me late at night to check I was in,” Ongaro tells Rugby Pass.

“He said coaching is the best role for staying close to the players on the pitch. I go out and have a smile, pat the players on the back, and share a joke.”

Ongaro also worked with Jones at Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath, having been team manager for Zebre in the franchise’s early years.

The 47-year-old has been with Benetton since 2016, where he has been an understated, if no less important, cog in shaping a team that has grown in recent years, first under Crowley and now Bortolami.

“He (Jones) works like a madman,” he says. “I don’t know if I could work alongside him because I always know that there is time for working, but also time to rest. With him it is always rugby, rugby, rugby, and I couldn’t live like that.

“All my coaches left something with me. I worked with Kieran for five years, and now Marco for three years. I worked a bit with Eddie when he was with Japan, and I’ve worked with a lot of coaches, but I worked my best with Kieran and now Marco.”

Bergamasco and Ongaro admit they didn’t see themselves moving into coaching but are certainly enjoying their work, and neither see it as anything more than coincidence that so many of their contemporaries have also started coaching.

Nonetheless, such a wave of experienced and successful coaches raises the possibility that for the first time since the start of the Six Nations, we may see a native Italian in charge of the Azzurri after three Kiwis, two Frenchmen, two South Africans, one Irishman and now an Argentine have held the role.

I’m a very trusting coach, in the sense that I give players lots of responsibility, I don’t want players to push their luck. If you talk but don’t deliver, there will be problems.

Bortolami would be the outstanding candidate and earlier this year he told Rugby Pass he would be interested if Gonzalo Quesada’s reign comes to an end after the 2027 Rugby World Cup. For Bergamasco and Ongaro, their chances are slim, though Bergamasco says, “you never say never,” about coaching in Italy.

“We all have a different story and that reflects in our decisions to become coaches,” Bergamasco says. “I never wanted to be a coach, but I found I liked it and here I am.

“I tried it, and I liked it. For six years after my injury, I chased a return to the national team. After six years these experiences combined and helped me become the type of coach I am now, and I share those experience with the players, especially the low points, and help them grow in a positive way.

“I’m a very trusting coach, in the sense that I give players lots of responsibility, I don’t want players to push their luck. If you talk but don’t deliver, there will be problems. I’m very demanding but I’ve worked hard to make sure each player has what they need to perform.”