High-flying Bernardo Stortoni glad to pass on skills to Scots

Published on Wednesday 6 October 2010 17:59

HE IS technically a 'Puma' not a salmon, but watching Glasgow's full-back Bernardo Stortoni leaping through the air to claim a high ball is the closest some might find to such natural beauty in rugby.

Yet, in insisting that it was not through mere courage nor natural ability, the popular Argentine internationalist this week spoke enthusiastically about how he was trying to educate the next generation of Scots on the importance of mastering such skills.

Stortoni is recognised by leading coaches across the world as one of the foremost catchers of a rugby ball and while Glasgow supporters are treated to his ability on a regular basis the Scotland coaching team have taken him on board to help spread the word of how he achieves such consistency across the country.

He was at Inverleith last month to help Andy Robinson, Gregor Townsend, Graham Steadman, Duncan Hodge and other national coaches work with over 70 club coaches from the Scottish game on skills coaching. Once a month they pitch up in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Galashiels or Stirling to work with teenage players identified by local coaches as having potential, but not yet in the elite development system, on skills training.

A common mantra of top coaches across sport is 'little and often', meaning a little work on basic skills every day is better than trying to improve with one hour of work a month, for example. When asked how Stortoni had perfected his skills, he underlined that philosophy.

"I played a lot of basketball when I was young," he began, "but I always try to do 20 minutes after training with a few high kicks, and other skills - passing, steps… I need to do that more now that I'm getting old and the younger ones are coming through faster and stronger, so I try to always do something."

Fascinating. So more rather than less despite the fact he is heading towards his 34th birthday and so may be expected to want to ease off on the training.

"When I started playing rugby as an amateur in Argentina I would always go before training or stay after training to do kicking, catching, passing, or play touch with my friends," he continued, then laughed. "Anything really to make sure I didn't have to go home and read my books for the university! So I train very early and late.

"But I love to train and to play rugby, and also because it's important to me to play good rugby. If you drop the ball or pass bad ball you will not be happy with yourself and also the coach will not be as well, so you have to be ready for everything. Now it is the Heineken Cup and I want me and our team to be ready to start well on Friday."

There is the insight.Some of these sentences are not quite verbatim because as good as Stortoni's English is, it is not perfect. But the message and the reasons behind why he has been Glasgow's most consistent performer are pretty clear. He is now working closely with Ruaridh Jackson, Duncan Weir, Peter Horne, Peter Murchie and others at Glasgow, and is enthused by their appetite for extra training.

"You see they want to improve a lot and do things better. They start playing rugby professionally younger now, at 19 and 20 years old, and they are very good in terms of fitness and strength, but they know they have to improve their skills, so staying after training is good for them."

And then he turns his attention back to the visit of Newport Gwent Dragons, the frustration of losing two players to the sin-bin in the league defeat at Rodney Parade and how he hopes the Warriors will learn from that and start the Heineken Cup campaign in much more vibrant form.

"The chance to play in the Heineken Cup for any player is great, but for me personally it's a great chance to show where you are and how good you can be, so it's a great chance for Glasgow and I'm looking forward to Friday."

His chirpy demeanour dropped as he added: "We know that Newport are a tough team to play, but we are at home and it is very important to start well at home. Discipline is important every week, but sometimes it kills us. In that game we had four or five ill-discipline moments with two players off for ten minutes and that costs the game at this level.

"Since then we have talked and improved a lot but still we are doing little things that we do not need (to do] because we have a good defence. Everyone, the new players too, are starting to understand that. So, discipline is massive on Friday, the little mistakes and being able to look after the ball in attack and be more clinical. Newport are tough, but we can be aggressive as well and at home especially we have to be.

"The supporters have been great at Firhill and we must do it for them as much as for ourselves. It is good to be back at home but we must take that advantage and make it count this time. This is a new competition and very exciting. I have lots of friends in France still who are excited about seeing us on TV."

There is little doubt that Glasgow supporters and players, perhaps even coaches, take for granted Stortoni's skills, notably in killing opposition attacks stone dead with his grasping of a high ball intended to spark mayhem in his ranks, and to turn it into an attacking platform. How many points he alone has saved his side, and how many they have scored off his counter-attacks in his three years in Glasgow one can only guess at.

Naturally, having turned the spotlight on him, the amiable Argentine is bound to drop a ball tomorrow night.But if a bookie wanted to take the bet Stortoni is the one man in world rugby that I would bank on not dropping the ball, and right now Scots are being handed the opportunity to benefit.