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Former Italy prop Lo Cicero seeks help from social media after 25-year search
By Josh Raisey
Italian centurion Andrea Lo Cicero has sent out an appeal on social media to aid him in finding a baby he helped deliver in 1995 when volunteering for the Italian Red Cross in his hometown of Catania, Sicily.
The former loosehead prop was 19 at the time and would have been in the early stages of his rugby career, where he was playing for Catania at the time. After almost 27 years, he sent out a message on social media this week to help find the baby delivered in the Santo Bambino Hospital.
"Hoping that social sharing can help me," the 45-year-old wrote on Instagram.
"I'll tell you about one of the most beautiful, touching, exciting experiences of my life, giving birth to a premature baby. Volunteering with the Red Cross. I was 19 years old during an ambulance service with my legendary colleague @milena_ali. In this photo I am in the midwifery department of Catania, the morning after having helped the mother of this beautiful little girl Miriam, 3,350 kg, 50cm. I will not forget this day. It was 1995, Catania, early spring period, Santo Bambino Hospital. I HOPE THAT ONE DAY I MAY MEET MIRIAM. Hoping that someone can somehow help me. THANK YOU."
Lo Cicero's stint with the Red Cross came five years before he made his Italy debut in 2000 against England in the Six Nations. He would go on to play 103 times for the Azzurri, featuring in three Rugby World Cups, before playing his final game in a win over Ireland in Rome in 2013. For a time he was also Italy's most capped player, having overtaken Alessandro Troncon, but that has now been surpassed. His club career also saw him play across Italy and France, before he retired completely in 2013.
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Latest Comments
I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).
Number Of Clubs:
1526
Registered+Unregistered Players:
651146
Number of Referees:
3460
Pre-teen Male Players:
320842
Pre-teen Female Player:
4522
Teen Male Player:
199213
Teen Female Player:
4906
Senior Male Player:
113174
Senior Female Player:
8489
Total Male Player:
633229
Total Female Player:
17917
So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.
So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).
https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.
The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.
In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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