St Benedict's Old Boy has Olympic dream

Published on isbi School News dated Wednesday 12th of March 2014

Former St Benedict's student Juliano Fiori is hoping to be in the Brazilian rugby sevens squad at the 2016 Olympic Games, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. Juliano was Head Boy at St Benedict's in 2002, the school's centenary year.

At St Benedict's Juliano was 'a centre, playing fly half.' Now a back row forward, his position in sevens is prop. He has played for Richmond RFC since 2003 and has now come back to run a session with the school's Under 13s sevens squad.

So, why Brazil and what brought Juliano to their attention? 'My father is Brazilian and I hold a Brazilian passport. A few years back I was invited to play for Apache 7, one of the main invitational sevens teams in the UK. I played against the Brazilian team when it was touring the UK and met some of the players and coaches. Then, more recently, another St Benedict's old boy, Alex Pereira-Inacio, who is involved with the Portuguese national team, put me in contact with the Brazilian head coach. After representing Apache in last year's Great Britain Sevens Series, I was invited to play for London Irish in the JP Morgan Premiership Sevens. It was a great opportunity and I aim to keep improving over the next couple of years so as to hopefully participate in the 2016 Olympics'.

Rugby last featured in the 1924 Summer Olympics so it has been a long wait for the sport to be re-admitted to the Olympic fold. Juliano is training hard and hoping he will be able to make his mark in Brazil.