'People are scared because they have never seen things like this'
Italy flanker Maxime Mbanda has vowed to push through the fear and keep driving ambulances carrying coronavirus patients to and from hospital.
The Zebre back row forward is volunteering for Italy’s Yellow Cross charity, driving Covid-19 patients to hospital in emergencies or transferring patients from one medical centre to another.
The Breakdown is joined by Richie McCaw, Will Greenwood, Ardie Savea and Jean de Villiers to discuss rugby’s response to Covid-19
The 27-year-old admitted he does fear for his own health but has pledged to keep on volunteering for the duration of the pandemic.
Wearing protective clothing from head to foot, Mbanda admitted patients desperately gasping for breath can only communicate their fears through their eyes.
“I can tell you that I’m scared, because every time you step into an infected department in the hospital you know that the enemy is in the air, it’s on everything you can touch,” said Mbanda. “The enemy is invisible; you can’t see it.
“But I know I’m doing a good thing, in my little work, because with all respect to doctors and nurses my work is very little, but I’m trying to help as many people as possible. So I’ll keep on going until this emergency is over.
“It’s difficult but I’m trying to do my best. I don’t have a medicine degree or a nurse’s degree, but I’m trying to do my best. I’m helping transfer patients between hospitals, to help nurses to create space.
“The patients are scared, even when you transfer them from one hospital to another. Even if they don’t speak because they have oxygen masks on, with their eyes they can talk to you. They can tell you that they are scared with their eyes.
“You have to try to take care of them like you would for parents or family. You have to hold their hand. The worst fact is after every time you touch them you have to sanitise your hands because you know they are Covid-19 positive.
“It takes us ten minutes to get dressed in all our protective equipment. I’m healthy now, and as long as I’m healthy I will keep helping as much as possible. If my work, my parents and my girlfriend keep agreeing, I’ll keep on doing this.
“I’ve received a lot of messages from my team-mates, coaching staff, my president, saying how proud they are. They know the risk but they know what I’m doing and they understand why I’m doing it.”
The 20-cap loose forward is volunteering across the Parma area, while his father is a surgeon working in Milan. “Hospitals are full so we are trying to find a balance to let them work in a better situation,” said Mbanda.
"I don’t think our lives will ever be the same again… There are so many people dying"
– @ZebreRugby lock @GFBIAGI on the grim new reality in Northern Italy & how a transcendent moment of family jubilation burst through the darkness – w/@heagneyl 🇮🇹 https://t.co/yIGjFYpP6T
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 28, 2020
“Every day you see a different situation, you talk with different people, people who are in hospitals for a lot of days. In the hospital they are exposed to a lot of things, patients dying, emergencies, doctors and nurses are running from one room to another to save people.
“People are scared because they’ve never seen things like this. I think doctors and nurses are understanding the messages of support from the people outside. But the people must know that they have to stay at home, to let the nurses and doctors work as freely as possible.
“Doctors and nurses are working 24/7 so they are putting all their physical and mental power into this, so we have to let them work in the most correct way, in the best conditions. And the more people can stay at home, hopefully the fewer people will end up in hospital.
“I can tell you that until about one week ago not all the people in Italy could understand that. Even when we were going out with the ambulance we could see a lot of people running or walking or a lot of queues at the supermarket.
“People involved in rugby think rugby is everything and that everyone cares about rugby. They just don’t.”https://t.co/X40kt9yyUY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 29, 2020
“The supermarkets weren’t closing, but there were still huge queues at the supermarket, hundreds of people waiting. It was useless. But now in the last few days, I can say that the Italian people have understood the risk and that they have to stay at home.
“At the end of a shift I’m tired but all I have to do is think about what I see in the hospital, and then I can’t let myself be tired. I’m seeing so many bad things in the hospital, so my only objective is to be ready for the next day, to help.
“I hope as soon as possible… rugby is my work, my life. I want to be back – and if I’m back it means the situation is over, the emergency is over. I hope the day when I can be back on the pitch will come as soon as possible.”
Asking just two things from the general public, Mbanda added: “If people are so bored at home, rather than complain on social media, they should search for people who need support and volunteers. “If you want to go out, OK, but go to help the community.
“And for young people… it’s easy to pass these long days because we’ve grown up with social media and technology, you can talk to people and interact. So the day can go faster. But there are many old people that live alone, and maybe even without television, and they might be lonely.
“So pick up the phone, call to a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or family friend. Maybe 10, 15 minutes a day, that can help them interact to smile, to laugh, and to make these difficult days pass much more easily and faster. We must stay as humble as possible.”
– Press Association
WATCH: Treviso-based Ian McKinley chats to Jim Hamilton in the debut episode of The Lockdown, the new RugbyPass series
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments