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Rugby match to mark Italian Job, 92 years on
BATTLE: Chris Gordon of Tarleton Rugby Club who will play in the friendship tournament
A Lancashire Rugby Club will represent England in a “friendship” tournament at the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Great War.
A side from Tarleton Rugby Club has been invited to Northern Italy in September to compete against clubs from other countries caught up in the 1914-18 conflict.
The people of Montebelluna never forgot the sacrifice made by young soldiers from the UK protecting their country from overthrow by German-backed Austro-Hungarian forces.
And following a recent rugby tour to the region by staff and pupils of Hutton Grammar School, an invitation has arrived for Tarleton to compete in the Memory Cup in September, an event which brings together teams from 18 nations who fought in World War One.
“It is a tremendous honour to be invited to represent the UK,” said Tarleton first team coach Paul Mahon who assisted on the school trip to Northern Italy last month.
“We played at Montebelluna and the welcome they gave us was unbelievable. The local people were so hospitable and, even though it is more than 90 years ago, they are still incredibly grateful for the part our troops played in protecting their region from invasion.“
Teams from across Europe and the United States will descend on Montebelluna for a three-day festival of touch rugby which will include juniors, seniors and mixed sides.
The theme is friendship and invitations have also been sent to Germany, Austria and Hungary – the three nations whose forces tried to take Italy in 1918.
“We want to honour the memory of those millions of people who endured so much in World War One,” said a spokesman for the tournament organisers.
“All these nations are now friends again and it is only fitting that we involve all the countries who fought on the battlefields.
“Rugby has never known the word ‘enemies,’ only rivals - proud rivals who at the end of games become best of friends to eat, drink and sing.”
Hundreds of British troops gave their lives repelling an invasion across the Piave River near Montebelluna, north-west of Venice. They are buried in five separate military cemeteries in the area.
The battle proved a pivotal moment in World War One, virtually crushing the Austro-Hungarian army and hastening the end of hostilities across Europe.
The British forces, including two battalions of the York and Lancaster Regiment, were diverted from the Western Front in France to support the Italians along the line of the Piave River.
Casualties on both sides were high, with the Italians having 80,000 either killed or wounded and enemy losses totalling 150,000. Eventually the invasion was repelled and the people of the region still talk of the river “running red with British blood.”
Jonathan Skofic, chairman of Tarleton Rugby Club, who was at Montebelluna for the Hutton game, said: “We struck up an instant friendship with the locals and when they asked our club to be England’s representatives at the Memory Cup we had no hesitation accepting.
“They are wonderful people and it will be an honour and a privilege to go back over there in September for what should be a terrific occasion.
“Of course with all trips like this we would love sponsorship help. But the idea of a friendship tournament to bring nations closer together is a tremendous cause to support.”
Amongst the thousands of casualties in the Battle of the Piave River was an 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway who was seriously wounded by mortar fire.
The author was in Northern Italy as a volunteer with the Red Cross and won a gallantry medal after ignoring shrapnel wounds to both legs to carry an Italian officer to safety.
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