James Tedesco has swapped Italy for Australia, while his former teammate Nathan Brown has moved the other way
By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required
Italy are playing Australia on Saturday night for the first time in 62 years. The teams are almost as mismatched now as they were in their previous game in January 1960. The Kangaroos – featuring legendary players Reg Gasnier and Harry Wells, Johnny Raper and Rex Mossop – were playing the 37th and final match of a mammoth two-year European tour and romped to a 67-22 victory in Treviso. A similar scoreline is likely on Saturday in St Helens.
Germano Occialini was among the 3,105 spectators at the Stadio Omobono Tenni on that freezing afternoon in January 1960 to see Ken Irvine score six tries for the visitors. A rugby fanatic, he slogged 75 miles through snow from Udine to see these mystical Australians. Now, six decades later, his grandson Ippolito Occhialini is in the Italy squad. And the 24-year-old half-back hopes to make his international debut against the Kangaroos and complete an extraordinary family circle. Continue reading...
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