Rovigo, San Bortolo district, 20 October 1919. Mario Battaglini is born, the fourth of six children. He is so big that his mother calls him «Macistin», after Maciste. From that diminutive comes the nickname that will stay with him for ever: Maci.
He leaves school in the second year of primary and tries everything: athletics, football, swimming, cycling, basketball, boxing. Then he discovers rugby. On 26 December 1936 he makes his debut for Rovigo, beaten 17-0 by Padova. Three years later, with Gil Rovigo, he wins the Italian youth title, the first in the city's history. With Amatori Milano he wins the championships of 1940 and 1943. In 1940 he becomes the first man from Rovigo to wear the azzurri shirt of the national team.
War comes. Battaglini fights in the Balkans and in Russia and receives the Cross for Military Valour for clearing minefields. After the war he is one of the first Italians to play in France: two seasons at Vienne, near Lyon, and one at Toulon. The French call him «le grand Battà» and «le roi des buteurs», the king of place kickers, for the accuracy of his boot.
He returns to Rovigo as player-coach and wins three championships in a row, in 1951, 1952 and 1953. As a coach he leads Fiamme Oro of Padua to three more titles between 1958 and 1960. He stops playing in 1963. His last match on the bench, on 7 June 1969, is Rovigo v Clermont-Ferrand.
In the autumn of 1970 he falls from his bicycle on an icy road. He falls into a coma and dies in hospital in Padua on 1 January 1971, aged 51. At the funeral, don Mario Bisaglia compares him to Samson, a strong and gentle man. The writer Gian Antonio Cibotto would recall that in his heart there was always the «piccola città di nebbie spinose e di soli cocenti» (little town of prickly fogs and scorching suns).
Today Rovigo's rugby stadium bears his name. The city has also dedicated a monument to him and a portrait on the stand. You only need to watch a Bersaglieri match to understand that Maci, here, is still playing.
