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Parisse boosts Italy for must-win Ireland game

Talismanic Italy captain Sergio Parisse returns to the side for his first game of the 2015 World Cup in the must-win Pool D game against Six Nations champions Ireland on Sunday.

Published: 2 October 2015 13:49 CEST
Updated: 2 October 2015 16:49 CEST

Parisse boosts Italy for must-win Ireland game

Italy talisman Sergio Parisse will return to the Italy side this weekend. Photo: Garbriel Bouys

The 32-year-old No. 8, who missed the first two games following surgery to drain a haematoma on his calf, is one of five changes to the starting XV who scraped a 23-18 win over Canada last weekend.

Parisse's aura is such that the Irish have said they fear the impact he could have on reviving his side's morale as they drive for a victory needed to maintain any hope of reaching the quarter-finals.

Parisse comes into the team for Samuela Vunisa and takes captaincy duties back from Leonardo Ghiraldini, who misses the match with a thigh muscle injury.

Parisse, who becomes the sixth Italy player to participate in four World Cups, is joined in the back row by Simon Favaro with whom he has formed a potent partnership.

Italy have won three of the last four tests when Parisse and Favaro started together in the back row, a sequence that began with Italy's first ever Six Nations win over Ireland, 22-15 in Rome in 2013.

That was prior to present Ireland coach Joe Schmidt taking over and guiding the Irish to two successive Six Nations titles (2014/15).

There are 13 players in Italy's match-day squad that were involved that day.

Aside from Parisse and Favaro three of them come in the pack, tighthead Lorenzo Cittadini, and locks Quintin Geldenhuys and Josh Furno.

A win for Ireland at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday would see both them and France qualify out of Pool D for the knockout stages.

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French rugby in turmoil as FFR boss gets suspended sentence over corruption

French rugby was reeling Tuesday after the president of the country’s governing body Bernard Laporte was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence on corruption charges nine months before France hosts the game’s World Cup.

Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR) president Laporte, 58, was convicted after a French court ruled he showed favouritism in awarding a shirt sponsorship contract for the national side to Mohed Altrad, the billionaire owner of Top 14 champions Montpellier. He was also banned from holding any rugby post for two years. Both are suspended pending an appeal, which Laporte’s lawyer said was imminent.

Laporte later stepped down from his role as vice-chairman of the sport’s global governing body, World Rugby, pending a review by the body’s ethics officer.

“World Rugby notes the decision by World Rugby vice-chairman Bernard Laporte to self-suspend from all positions held within its governance structures with immediate effect following his conviction by the French court in relation to domestic matters, and pending his appeal,” World Rugby said.

“While acknowledging Laporte’s self-suspension and right of appeal, given the serious nature of the verdict World Rugby’s Executive Committee has referred the matter to its independent ethics officer for review in accordance with its integrity code,” it added.

Resignation call
Laporte faces problems on the domestic front, too, with Florian Grill, who narrowly lost to him in the 2020 election for federation chief, calling for Laporte and the entire board to stand down.

“It is unheard of in rugby, this is an earthquake,” Grill told AFP. “We have never before seen a president of the federation condemned to two
years in prison, even if it suspended.

“We think the 40 members of the board of directors should draw the obvious conclusions and resign.”

French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said the sentence was an “obstacle for Bernard Laporte to be able, as it stands, to continue his mission in good conditions” as federation president, and called for a “new democratic era to allow French rugby to rebound as quickly as possible and sufficiently healthy and solid, with a governance by the federation that will have the full confidence of the clubs”.

The court found that Laporte ensured a series of marketing decisions favourable to Altrad – who was given an 18-month suspended sentence and
€50,000 euro — in exchange for a €180,000 image licensing contract that was never actually carried out.

Altrad’s lawyer said he would study the decision before deciding on whether to appeal.

At the trial’s close in September, prosecutors said they were seeking a three-year prison sentence for Laporte, of which he should serve one behind bars, and the two others on probation.

The friendship and business links between Laporte and Altrad are at the heart of the case.

It goes back to February 2017, when they signed a deal under which Laporte agreed to appear at Altrad group conferences, and sold his image reproduction rights, in return for €180,000.

But while that sum was paid to Laporte, prosecutors claim that he neveractually provided the services he signed up for.

Laporte did, however, make several public statements backing Altrad and, in March 2017, signed the €1.8 million deal with the businessman making his namesake firm the first-ever sponsor to appear on the French national team’s jerseys.

The Altrad name and logo still features on the shirts thanks to a follow-up deal negotiated by Laporte in 2018 and which prosecutors say bears all the hallmarks of corruption. It is also on the All Blacks’ national squads’ shirts, and New Zealand Rugby is reportedly seeking an urgent meeting with company officials following the court ruling.

Laporte, formerly a highly successful coach who guided France twice to the World Cup semi-finals (2003 and 2007), was also found guilty of favouritism
with regards to Altrad’s Montpellier Herault Rugby (MHR) club.

He was convicted for intervening with French rugby’s federal disciplinary commission to reduce a fine against the club from €70,000 to €20,000 after several telephone calls from Laporte.

While prosecutors saw this and several more incidents as proof of illicit favouritism, Laporte himself had claimed there was no “cause-effect relationship”.

On the last day of the trial in October, Laporte’s lawyer Fanny Colin accused the prosecution of “confirmation bias” by “taking into account only elements backing their original assumptions”.

The verdict comes only nine months before the Rugby World Cup kicks off in France on September 8, 2023, with matches played in nine stadiums across the country.

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