Participating in a Rugby World Cup is no more than the tip of the iceberg, the huge part comes away from the public gaze as they look to support the elite level.
These are the specialists and technicians who work towards a better future for the national team, making plans for coaches and players to follow. Rugbyworldcup.com caught up with these 'development officers' from the Italian and Romanian teams to find out the avenues they will follow for the future.
Francesco Ascione, a former international player for Italy, is head of training programmes which coaches and players must follow at the Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR).
Daniel Mitrea is the National Technical Director for the Romanian Rugby Federation (RRF) and Regional Development Officer for the IRB-AER.
What are the repercussions of your country playing in RWC 2003?
F. Ascione: RWC 2003 created a very huge interest concerning new supporters and those who followed rugby for the first time, especially the relationship with the national team. Actually this interest has helped us to increase the popularity of rugby in our country.
D. Mitrea: The rugby experts in Romania were just a little bit disappointed by the results, but the improvement technically and tactically of the team has been positive as well. In general the repercussions are very positive, especially about the media coverage.
Do you think that you are going in the right way or do you need to restructure?
F. Ascione: I think that we are going in the right way because the young players who participated in this Rugby World Cup have come from the different national squad levels (U16 through to U21).
D. Mitrea: We think that we have reached a very good level, but to keep improving we need a real restructuring, not just to do changes for the sake of changes. For this reason the Romanian Rugby Federation must be more involved with the young players.
Does rugby in your country have its own style?
F. Ascione: The Italian flair exists and it has a very traditional culture that has been built through many years and it is the result of a quality job and to share constructive experience with a lot of other countries around the world.
D. Mitrea: Romanian rugby has a very important tradition. The transition to pass from one sort of style to another has created some problems. It is only a question of readjusting these little details, but when we reach that Romania will once again be a big rugby nation.
Talking about 2007, what are the different subjects or main areas to work on with players and coaches training?
F. Ascione: We need to work very hard in all the areas that the present top level requires or demands and try to keep this development or evolution constant. If you stop for a moment in your planning, you will lose everything from that time.
D. Mitrea: Without a doubt we must work on physical, mental and tactical subjects.
What about the coaches?
F. Ascione: We need to increase the number of professional coaches working in our clubs … an improvement in quantity and quality.
D. Mitrea: All that I said before is impossible to do without good coaches. For this reason the Romanian Rugby Federation has created the Rugby Academy who will train the top coaches and U18 players.
These rigorous jobs that people like Ascione and Mitrea do in their own countries are a never ending dedication, one they do with a great degree of professionalism and a passion for rugby.
Italy and Romania may not be super powers in the world of rugby at the moment, but with men like these the sky is surely the limit?