Mafia scrum A women's rugby team tackles the Cosa Nostra By Lorenzo Tondo

Gloria Mertoli's shift is over when the first light of dawn shines on the goalposts of a rugby pitch in the Librino district of Catania, a stronghold of the Cosa Nostra, the feared Sicilian mafia.

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Since mobsters torched the clubhouse and team bus, players on the women's team of Briganti Librino have taken turns to guard the area overnight. Since the club started working to take children - easy targets for mafia recruitment -off the streets of Librino, the clans have tried to put it out of business. “Librino is a complex neighbourhood,” Piero Mancuso, one of the founders of the Briganti, said. “We knew it wouldn't be easy to work here.

These criminal attacks risked destroying everything we had achieved. But if I look at what we have done so far, I can say that these attacks have made us stronger. The story of the small Briganti team from Catania has received expressions of solidarity from England's national rugby coach, Eddie Jones, as well as from former England captain Bill Beaumont. Even World Rugby has expressed its support for the team. Last year, an amateur rugby team from Bolton, with a 150-year heritage, forged a partnership with the Sicilian team.