Sidoli lifts Welsh hopes against land of his father

Pontypridd has never occupied a significant place in the annals of Wales rugby. Of the 1,000-plus players to have represented the country a mere 28 have come from the Rhondda Valley club. Yet, last summer, events that owed their origin to Ponty created hope for a brighter future for rugby in the Principality.

While no one is ever guaranteed an international place, Robert Sidoli, by virtue of having been a member of a group of players who helped convince coach Steve Hansen that Welsh rugby was undergoing an upturn in fortunes in South Africa last summer, must have a better-than-even chance of adding to his five caps by making it into the starting 22, if not the 15 on Saturday.

Sidoli, along with his fellow Pontypridd forwards Gethin Jenkins, Mefin Davies, Michael Owen and Richard Parks, contributed mightily to the tourists' efforts in South Africa. While many in the rugby world had expected humiliation for the Welsh, Sidoli and his pals were doing their bit for club and country and proving to everyone that there was life in the old dragon yet.

Hansen was thrilled with the way the squad performed. He had taken over the national side from Graham Henry following Wales' half-century drubbing by Ireland in last year's Six Nations' Championship.

It was a tricky time for Hansen to pick up the reins from a man he greatly admired and initially he did not tinker with the constituent bodies of the squad. That meant that throughout the rest of the tournament not a single representative from Pontypridd pulled on the red jersey.

However, after South Africa all that began to change. Come the autumn internationals and Sidoli, Davies, Owen, Parks, as well as the centre Sonny Parker, had forced their way into the reckoning.

That coincided with an upsurge in fortune at Sardis Road, where Ponty – with their record-breaking fly-half Neil Jenkins back on the books after a few seasons with Cardiff – were cutting a swathe through European opposition to reach the semi-finals of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup.

Success breeds success, as Sidoli knows only too well. If the second-rower is selected to face Italy on Saturday it will wrap up neatly the promising beginnings of a Test career that could have gone in a completely different direction, yet has ended up in the same place – Rome – this weekend.

As the son of an Italian immigrant, Primo Sidoli, Robert and his brother Peter were approached not so long ago to move to Italy, play for an Italian club and make themselves available for the land of their father.

"It was a hell of a compliment to us," admits Sidoli. "It was around the time Italy were on a worldwide recruitment drive and we were told that a couple of Italian clubs were very interested in signing us.

"We had to go away and think about it. We are, after all, half Italian." But ultimately the nation of their birth won the day. "We decided to stick with Wales, because we were born and bred here.

"I don't even speak any Italian, not any more. I have forgotten all the stuff I knew as a child and I haven't been to Italy for years. My father goes back occasionally to his home town, Bardi, which is not far from Parma in the north of Italy, but that is only to catch up with his friends. Pretty well all our relatives are over in this country now."

By one of those quirks of fate one of the first sides against whom Sidoli played as a Wales Under-19 lock was Italy, and his Wales A debut was also against the Azzurri.

Now a Six Nations debut against those blue shirts beckons. "I just hope I am involved in the squad," says the modest Merthyr Tydfil-born player. "We have all been working hard, working for each other. We are all keen to learn."

By all accounts these young dogs in the Welsh squad have been learning plenty of new tricks under Hansen. "From a personal point of view I feel my defensive awareness has improved," Sidoli says, "and I have a better understanding of how to support the back line because in the national squad the forwards have done a lot of work on that aspect of play, the angles of running in support for example, and we therefore have a greater appreciation of what is required by the backs.

"Learning new things can be difficult and it is not always so easy to take them on board, but once we have tried them in a match and they have come off it suddenly inspires confidence and you become more prepared to try other new things."

Little wonder then that Sidoli believes that Wales can really make an impact on this season's tournament and, more significantly, the World Cup. "The potential is definitely there in this squad," he insists. "We have the spirit, and despite the scoreline [43-17], our performance against New Zealand in November has given us all confidence."

He acknowledges though that Italy in Rome is not going to be a rubber-stamped victory for the Welsh. "Italy are an improving side and they are developing quite quickly so it is going to be a tough match. They have a good support base, like Wales and, like us, the rugby fraternity is passionate. And they are desperate for European success."

Just as Sidoli is eager to make it on the personal front. But if he is selected for Saturday's Italian job it should be the first of many visits to the land of his father.