WHEN you have as little experience of winning as locally based Italian internationals, you'll do anything to put that right. So despite criticism back home, Leonardo Sarto is convinced he has made the right decision in leaving Zebre in Parma and heading for Glasgow Warriors in search of victories.
After all, in the four years he was playing for Zebre the club won just 18 out of 112 games in both the Guinness PRO12 and Europe – Glasgow managed that in one season. Their failings, matched by Treviso, the other Italian franchise, also accounts for the fact that despite scoring after about 52 seconds of his debut international and claiming eight tries in his 30 caps, Sarto has managed to be on the winning side just four times.
Still, that debut probably gave him some warm feelings towards Scotland since they were on the receiving end of his dream introduction to Test rugby, soured a bit when Alasdair Strokosch rumbled over two minutes after time was up to help steal the game for the Scots with a Greig Laidlaw conversion.
It is a feeling Sarto has become familiar with. Last season when he faced Glasgow in Parma he again scored early as his team took a lead into half time, only for the Scots to open up in the second half, score 36 unanswered points and cruise home 43-14. It was the kind of performance he wants to experience from the winning side.
"The big reason to come is to start to win," he said. "Zebra and Italy do not have big results at the moment. It is important to learn to win, to find an objective. For a wing, it is an opportunity to get more ball. Glasgow have great backs, and forwards, it is a great team."
That, it must be said, was not the view of Alfredo Gavazzi, president of the Italian federation. "Glasgow, come on!," he said, when discussing Sarto's move last March, going on to suggest the only reason he had had chosen the Scottish side was because they were the only club to show an interest
Sarto is not prepared to discuss that but is adamant that the current team management, nowadays headed by Conor O'Shea, are delighted he is here, and hope he can bring that winning mentality back to Italy when he returns for international camps. "He is very happy," Sarto said. "I will bring the will to win with the team when I go back.
"It is a big opportunity for me to improve. I am here to give for the team and to watch and learn."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here