Rugby in Brasil
Commitment and Sacrifice
I turned eighteen in August, when I was in Santiago, Chile, playing for the Brazilian national team at the South American rugby tournament in 1979. This was my last year of high school at Objetivo, and I was getting ready for the Brazilian college entrance exam. The national team had been training during 4 months for this tournament. We profited from a holiday in September and spent 8 days at CEFAN in Rio de Janeiro, training and playing some exhibition matches. We went to Santiago one week early to finalise our preparation. We spent 16 days altogether in Chile’s capital; I had missed 18 school days, and in spite of the letter from ABR (Brazilian Rugby Union) and even from the regulating sports authority at the time, CND, my absences were not accredited. Despite my good grades, I had to make up for the absences and write new exams, whose grades should have been higher than 8 (out of 10). Amidst all that were the college entrance exams – I had to choose and I decided to go to Law school. Even though I was accepted, I still had to pass the new high school exams to get my diploma and be able to start university. It was very hard, but I managed to do it.
Throughout 20 years as Brazilian national player, with rare exceptions, I took money of my own pocket (and a lot) to pay for preparation, gyms, nutritionists, travels, heath insurance, insurance, etc. I gave up my a job, family and everything else that involves the life of a “non-remunerated sports professional”, if it is possible to use that term, so that I could have adequate conditions and treat Rugby as it deserves to be treated: always at the highest level of effort and dedication. Please keep in mind I have never been a millionaire, I always had to work hard to have something in life, nothing came from my family.
Amateur sport has a special meaning for me. I could have been a professional football player but I didn’t want to, for personal reasons. At this same age I was offered a position to play for a large football team in Sao Paulo and because of rugby and its philosophy, I didn’t accept it.
I have no regrets – quite the contrary, I have learned a lot from Rugby. I have learned that in life you can reach your limits provided you put yourself into it, if you have talent for the sport and if you are very dedicated and unyielding.
I have played with generations of excellent Rugby players in my carrier. Most of them decided in favour of life outside rugby and soon gave up the sport. I have nothing to condemn or contest, but the fact is that generations and generations of excellent Rugbiers stopped in one of the tree main obstacles for a long rugby carrier, namely: professional reasons (School, job, company), personal reasons(family, parents, girlfriends, wives) and contusions (normally serious injuries, but curable, push players away).
I also lived together also with some types of players, which I learned to identify during the years:
The “Gabriela-Player” (I was born like this, I am always like this, I am like that – player who never changes),
The “Transfer-Player” (it wasn’t my fault, we don’t have structure, we don’t have referees, it can’t be like that – player who is always the victim, who is never guilty of anything),
The “Political-Player” (always smiling to everyone, always beside the managers/coaches, never arguing with nobody, always trying to take advantage from everything – player who lets everybody down on the field) and
The “Crying-Player” (I don’t have any money, my wife doesn’t let my play, my mom doesn’t let my play, I’m going to lose my job, I have classes tomorrow, I have to work – It is the worst one, because he isn’t stupid, it is clear that he knew what he was going in when he started to play and committed to the group).
Brazil lives a transition phase in Rugby. Some Clubs already have the structure to pay some athletes and trainers. Others actions towards providing players the minimum in necessary conditions are already going on. There is now the athlete grant (Bolsa Atleta), which helps high performance a lot, in other words, infrastructure in Brazil is evolving. That is very positive, in the long term, results will be seen in terms of quantity and quality of the players.
Effort and Sacrifice are part of the DNA of Rugby players all over the world. Who doesn’t understand that has a short carrier in this sport. You will constantly be obliged in the field to strive and to put yourself in second place, exactly because of that is Rugby a differentiated Sport. I abdicated everything for the group’s best interests, I abdicated everything even when the “I” was before. The scrum is lost, then my friends, the possessions of the ball is with the adversary.
One must always have in mind that a rugby player belongs to a group, that there will be a lot of important decisions in your carrier and you will have to choose, but have always in mind that Rugby will teach you and help you to get over all obstacles to keep going forward. Being a Rugby Player means being a happy citizen, who feels pleasure in being alive. The most important is to know how to learn with the sport. I always say:
“always be a first row in life. You are normally the last to be in the breakdowns, you barely touch the ball, make a lot of pressure, regardless of how bad or how good the opponent is, you will always have a tough game. But without you the team doesn’t go forward, without you the ball will be never clean, without your determination and courage the team will never fire up. That means, the perfect team would be the one where each one of the 15 players did their jobs with quality, but everybody’s mind should be as a first row’s mind, who plays with commitment, sacrifice, knowing that the most important of all is to participate”.
Antonio Martoni Neto,
lawyer, radio announcer, rugby trainer and sport commentator from ESPN Brasil
http://www.martonirugby.com.br/
