‘They torched our clubhouse’… but Sicilian rugby team won’t let mafia win

Gloria Mertoli’s shift is over when the first light of dawn shines on the goalposts of a rugby pitch in the Librino district of Catania, a stronghold of the Cosa Nostra, the feared Sicilian mafia. Since mobsters torched the clubhouse and team bus, she and other players on the women’s rugby team, Briganti Librino RUFC, have taken turns to stay after evening practice and guard the area overnight.

Since the club started working to take children – easy targets for mafia recruitment – off the streets of Librino, the clans have tried to put it out of business.

“Librino is a complex neighbourhood,” Piero Mancuso, one of the founders of the Briganti, told the Observer. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to work here. These criminal attacks risked destroying everything we had achieved in recent years. But if I look at what we have done so far, I can say that these attacks have made us stronger.”

The story of the small Briganti team from Catania has made news around the world and received expressions of solidarity from England’s national rugby coach, Eddie Jones, as well as from former England captain Bill Beaumont. Even World Rugby has expressed its support for the team. Last year, the amateur rugby team from Bolton, with a 150-year heritage, forged a partnership with the Sicilian team.

“For the people of Librino, rugby offers an alternative to a potential life of crime on the streets,” said the Bolton chairman, Mark Brocklehurst, in a note last year. “If we can help Briganti by offering a glimmer of hope, then amazing things can happen. What better motivator for Bolton to get involved?”

The Briganti, which runs several junior and senior teams, as well as women’s teams across multiple age groups, was established in Librino in 2006,