6.04pm, it’s history: Stade Valdôtain Rugby is promoted to Serie B

It is 6.04pm on Saturday 20 April. Stefano Zappa intercepts a ball and places it over the goal line of the Sarre pitch, which once hosted the retreats of the great Serie A football teams, and which has now become an all-round sports center where beach volleyball is played, basketball, mountain biking or rollerblading, judo and which is called Area6Tu. It is at this exact moment that Stade Valdôtain makes the history of Aosta Valley rugby: it’s the fourth goal, the one that guarantees the attack bonus, that one, single little dot that the math was missing promotion to Serie B. An event that has never happened in 53 years of rugby in Valle d’Aosta, a small region devoted almost exclusively to winter sports.

The goal of the B series Francesco Fida, current president of the Stade, had had it in mind for some time, almost an obsession. He would have liked to crown it in 2021, to celebrate 50 years of rugby in Valle d’Aosta in style. It seemed like a done deal last Sunday, with the overwhelming victory against Cuneo Pedona and the simultaneous draw against CUS Torino. Fate would have it that those who witnessed the apotheosis of the yellow-black Lions were the Lions VIIthe only ones capable of snatching a draw this season, and who today raised the white flag by losing 40-20.

“I am very happy for the Valle d’Aosta rugby movement and for the boys, who have had an incredible season”, says an emotional Francesco Fida, who can finally ease the tension of the first minutes. “This is not a point of arrival but a stage in our journey”.

For the occasion – it is the third to last match of the championship – the stadium is full. Old glories, young talents, people who have always followed Stade Valdôtain and those who came today so as not to miss the appointment with history, and with the party.

Yes, the party. Rugby is famous for the third half, a moment in which you meet up with opponents, teammates, fans, managers and professionals. You do it whether you win or lose. Never before in Valle d’Aosta had this been done for a promotion, as was the traditional one victoryselfie with Alberto Duc and Andrea Barbieri first transformed into the promotionselfie .

In the clubhouse there is singing, dancing, rivers of beer and Fernandito flow, and it will be like this until late at night. Before the darkness (of the beer, of the Fernandito or of the evening) takes over, it is better to send this article online. Which will be shared, read, passed around. I’m already expecting the message from tomorrow Trust me with the screenshot of the shares, as was his habit when searching for a “record”. Because anyway Stade Valdôtain has always been a family that welcomes everyone, also the undersigned since the first lines written in this newspaper almost eight years ago now, when we were still playing in Aosta. So cheersLions, you deserve it.