(Reuters) – Italy are renowned for passionately singing their national anthem on international sporting occasions and their Rugby World Cup players proved that they can hold a tune no matter where they are – like they did at Lyon airport on Sunday.
A clearly relaxed squad were on the shuttle bus after disembarking from the plane and they sang a classic Italian pop song in a video shared by the Italy Rugby Federation on Instagram.
Toto Cutugno was an Italian singer who died on Aug. 22, and the Italian rugby players sang along to his biggest hit, L’Italiano (The Italian), shortly after touching down in France.
Fullback Ange Capuozzo and flyhalf Tommaso Allan were the most enthusiastic, singing and clapping along, while Welsh-born scrumhalf Stephen Varney looked slightly bemused as his team mates enjoyed the sing-along.
The song, a dedication to Italian emigrants released in 1983, begins with the lines “let me sing with my guitar in hand, let me sing I am an Italian”.
The video of the Italian team shows them singing the final words of the catchy tune which translates to “let me sing because I’m proud of it, I’m an Italian, a real Italian”.
After their arrival in Lyon, the team left for their base camp in Bourgoin-Jallieu, a place where Capuozzo will feel at home, with his birthplace, Pont-de-Claix, just 70km away.
The Italians will hope to keep on singing once the action gets underway at the World Cup. Kieran Crowley’s side begin the tournament with a Pool A game with Namibia on Saturday in Saint-Etienne.
Italy face a tough task in France, where they take on the hosts and New Zealand, but as Cutugno (and Capuozzo) sang “Buongiorno Italia che non si spaventa” – (Good morning Italy that doesn’t get scared).
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes)
