Atresca national rugby union team

Atresca

Association	Atrescan Rugby Union
Confederation	ARF (Asura)
Head coach	Amadeo Passini
Captain	Ernisto Gallo
Most caps	Teodoro Conti (153)
Top scorer	Teodoro Conti (1,142)
Home stadium	La Rizzi
NSWC code	ATR
First colours Second colours
NSWC ranking
Current	4
Highest	2 (2001, 2019)
Lowest	15 (1996)
First international
Atresca 32–28 Navack (Friola, Atresca; 12 January 1918)
Heartlands Cup
Appearances	19 (first in 1920)
Best result	2nd, 2006

The Atresca national rugby union team is the rugby union team of Atresca. It competes in the Aeian Rugby Union World Cup and the Heartlands Cup, where its best result was second in 1996, losing out to Newrey in the final. The Atrescan national team is colloquially referred to as "the Rams".

Atresca has a 52% win rate in test match rugby, and has beaten every team in the IRB at least once, with the exception of Newrey, whom they have never beat. Their closest result against the Oaks was a test in 2001, where Atresca lost by two points, losing 22-20. Since then, Newrey has dominated the Atrescan team in almost all of its matches, with most of them being whitewashes in favour of Newrey, however as of recent, the Atrescan team has improved drastically with the introduction of young talent and a revitalisation of the rugby scene in the country, and the scorelines have been coming closer together.

Atresca competes with Newrey, Veleaz, Cuirpthe, tir Lhaeraidd, Midrasia and Navack in the Heartlands Cup, to which it was promoted in a controversial decision by the IRB in 2019 that sent historical Heartlands team Vvarden down to the Outlands Cup due to their frequented losses, the first team to be promoted in rugby history. The Pillars have never won the trophy, but came close in 1996, where they lost the final to Newrey. Only one Atrescan player has been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame - Teodoro Conti, who was inducted in 2005 as the most-capped and highest scorer of the Pillars, two titles which he retains to this day.

The team's first match was in 1918, shortly after the People's State was established, and was a test match against Navack in Monte Saro. Their first international test match was in Newrey, where they played the Cyningburgh side in their home city, losing the match 21-9. Atresca's early uniforms consisted of plain red kits, earning them the unofficial nickname of "The Reds", but since the 1960s, the side has adopted the nickname of "the Rams".

History

Introduction of rugby to Atresca

Rugby spread to Atresca during the 19th century as it began to pick up traction throughout a lot of western Asura, who in turn spread it globally through their colonial empires. Atresca was one of the first western nations to adopt rugby as a popular sport within the country. The sport quickly gained traction throughout the nation due to the lack of a pre-existing popular sport in the country. Early iterations of rugby in Atresca were played with heavy leather balls that often led to injury. Despite the sport's large popularity and presence in the nation, it never adopted nor made an attempt to create a national rugby team regulated by an official body - which gave birth to the "Ragtags" - a group of casual rugby players unregulated by a national body who would go on domestic tours playing other Ragtag teams. The most famous Ragtag team, the Rocca Royals, toured Newrey in the 1890s which brought great popularity to their team in Newrey, as well as becoming the start of a small rivalry between the two teams, which had largely dwindled since then but still exists today.

One of the first "Ragtag" teams, the Rocca Royals, pictured in 1891 in Newrey

Rugby continued to flourish as a popular sport in the nation even after the outbreak of the Great War, with many Atrescan soldiers using whatever they could find as a rugby ball to play the game in their spare time. On the northern front, specifically against Cuirpthe, various reports and accounts from soldiers who fought there stated that the soldiers would often thrown grenades into empty fields, wait for a dud, and use the dud as a rugby ball to play the sport with. The unorthodox form of rugby was became world renowned and was replicated in many forms of pop culture that emerged after the war, and is often seen as the birth point of the Atrescans' unphased and aggressive style of rugby that they are recognised for today.

Post-war rugby

Following the war, rugby emerged as an even bigger sport than it was prior as a way to unify the people in dire times. With much of the country destroyed in intermittent conflict, rugby played on the streets emerged as a way to combat the often-mined fields that now lay across the country. Seeing a way to unify the people under sport, and to draw attention away from the situation of the country, then-Prime Minister Marco Dellucci ordered the creation of the ARU, the official Atrescan rugby body, in 1918, thus creating the first official rugby team for the country. They played their first test match against Navack in 1918 and joined the Four Nations Tournament a year later, playing in their first tournament and international test match (against Cyningburgh) in 1919. They also played western Asuran nation and Heartlands Cup founder Newrey in 1919, which they lost 20-0 but was the start of Atresca's true entry into rugby in an era of Navish and Newreyan dominance.

Pictured is the first game between Newrey and Atresca in 1919

Dellucci was able to unite the country through sport and the ARU was a great success, and the funding was designated further in 1920 to expand their program into schools across the country in a better way to develop young talent and compete in the top divisions of international test rugby. The program introduced the Atrescan First Division into the domestic league rugby tier system in the country, which immediately attracted attention from many high schools and universities across the country as they began to introduce bigger and better rugby programs to try and get their students into the First Division. The scramble led to a vast system in which only the best would make it to the First Division. The league started out with four teams in 1920 but ended up with sixteen by 1930, all of which professionalised and adhering to international rugby standards under the IRB. The program is what started the string of dominance in the unofficial Outlands Cup, then just a nickname for the Four Nations Tournament between Atresca, Vidoria, Alriika, and Cyningburgh, dominance that continued to show until Atresca departed the Cup in 2019.

Atresca won the Four Nations Tournament 26 times between 1909 and 1968, the most of any team in the tournament, and went undefeated in 1962 in a team now dubbed "The Invincibles", triumphing in all 6 of their games, including a historic 31-4 victory over Cyningburgh, which set the groundwork for a future Atrescan-Newreyan rivalry.

Outlands Cup

Atresca was among the first teams to be called into the Outlands Cup when the IRB reformed the Four Nations Tournament in 1968, and the team won its inaugural tournament. The Atrescan side formed a dynasty in the 1970s that won five tournaments in a row, which was the first time the IRB began to take notice of the Atrescan side's talent that, in the 1970s, surpassed that of its Outlands competitors. The first ideas of Atrescan promotion to the Heartlands' Cup were floated around in the 1970s mainly due to the country's taking to rugby as its main sport and its long history with the sport. In the 1974 edition of the tournament, the Atrescan team conceded only 28 points throughout the entire tournament, while scoring 37 tries in the process, a record that still stands today.

Rugby World Cup

The Atrescan participated in the inaugural 1985 Aeian Rugby World Cup, but were knocked out early on in the round of 16 by Navack, it would be the first of many World Cups the Atrescan team would participate in, and in 1989 Atresca submitted a bid for the World Cup that was successful, and the country hosted the RWC final in Albasini, attracting 66,000 attendees, the largest rugby match ever at the time. The team, however, suffered in the 1980s through managerial neglect and the lack of fresh talent entering the ranks, which would pave the way for a disappointing 1980s and early 1990s for the Atrescan team, who went trophyless for twelve years between 1979 and 1991.

Conti era

Conti with the Atrescan squad for the 2004 Outlands Cup

In 1998, Atrescan academy player and fly-half/centre Teodoro Conti joined the Atrescan international team aged just 19. In a friendly against Alriika, Conti became the youngest ever try scorer in Atrescan rugby history, touching down in the 65th minute for a try aged just 19 years and 116 days. Conti's era of success would begin just a year later in 1999 when he was made captain of the team at 20 years of age. Despite his young age for captaincy, he led the team to second place in the 1999 Outlands Cup, barely losing the final to Vidoria 36-34; the first finals appearance from the Atrescan team since 1983. Conti would dominate the 2000s rugby scene, taking Atresca to victory in the 2000 and 2001 Outlands Cup before steamrolling to the finals of the 2002 World Cup, where they lost out to then-world number one's Newrey.

Conti would go on to dominate the rugby scene of the mid-2000s, becoming a Atrescan icon and a role model rugby player for many up and coming stars - many of whom now point to Conti as a point of inspiration and guidance. Characterised by his aggressive playstyle, speed, strength and accuracy when converting spot kicks, Conti retired in 2011 with full honours after becoming the most-capped and highest-scoring player in Atrescan history, with 153 caps and 1,142 points from 173 tries.

Record

Men's Aeian Rugby Rankings
Top 16 rankings as of 10 August 2019
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		Newrey	091.34
2		Atresca	084.82
3	1	Cuirpthe	083.86
4	3	Veleaz	081.66
5	1	Navack	080.48
6		Vidoria	079.89
7	2	Vaellenia	077.94
8	3	Vvarden	077.39
9	5	Liberimery	076.26
10	2	Liiduria	074.11
11	1	Midrasia	073.87
12	3	Wradhia	073.58
13	1	Aleramia	073.19
14	1	The Mawusi	072.38
15	2	Ainhar	072.30
16		Aleia	067.91

Players

Current squad

On September 16, 2019, coach Amadeo Passini announced Atresca's starting 15 for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Vidoria.

No.	Pos.	Name
1	PR	Arcibaldo Supino
2	HK	Melanio Desio
3	PR	Dario Cinelli
4	LK	Auro Angelo
5	LK	Bacco Martino
6	FL	Rutilo Serafino
7	FL	Severo Pasquini
8	8	Tobia Grillo
9	SH	Azelio Giorgianni
10	FH	Ernesto Gallo
11	WG	Gastone Pizzino
12	CE	Ramiro La Franchi
13	CE	Savino Rossano
14	WG	Ponzio La Greca
15	FB	Giancarlo Pieroni