ROME - Italian rugby is mourning the death of two of its greatest former players, Massimo Cuttitta and Marco Bollesan, who both died on Sunday.

  Bollesan, who was an ironworker in Genoa before taking up rugby full time, received 47 full caps as number 8 for the Italian national team from 1963 to 1975, captaining the team on 37 occasions. He was a founder of Zebre in 1975, in its original form as an invitational team, and in 1987 coached Italy at the inaugural Rugby World Cup.

  In 1997 he offered to coach Amatori Milano, whom he played for in the last few years of his career, for free while the club was struggling financially. From 2003 to 2008 he ran the Italian national team’s public relations.

  He died aged 79 in Bogliasco, Genoa.

  The President of the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) said, “Italian rugby has lost one of its beloved sons… He was the epitome of courageous rugby, the symbol of a sport where mud, sweat and blood are the greatest honorifics.”

  Massimo Cuttitta was born in Latina in 1966 but spent much of his childhood in South Africa, where he started to play rugby. He played for several clubs around Italy, winning the Italian Rugby Championship four times, and in 1997/98 moved to London to play for Harlequins for a season.

  He played 69 matches for the national team, many alongside his twin brother Marcello, and captained the team at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups. In 2000 he played in Italy’s first Six Nations match, in which they managed a monumental 34-20 win over the favourites Scotland. His coaching career included six years as Scotland’s scrummaging coach.

  He died on Sunday aged 54 from complications relating to Covid-19.

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