Rugby union in Italy
Encyclopedia
Rugby union was introduced to Italy
in the early 1900s. The Super 10
competition is the main national club competition. The two professional teams in the country are active in Pro12 and also participate in the Heineken Cup
. Four italian clubs from the national championship compete in the European Challenge Cup
. Italy
compete in the Six Nations Championship
and Rugby World Cup
and are classified as a tier one nation by the International Rugby Board
.
(FIR). An original organisational committee was established in 1911, although it was in 1928 when the body became the FIR, and in 1987, they joined the International Rugby Board
. In 1934 the FIR became founding members of the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur.
The remote ancestry of rugby has been linked to a Roman game known as harpastum
, which spread throughout their Empire
, include the province of Britannia
. Athenaeus
writes:
Galen
, in On Exercise with the Small Ball, describes Harpastum as:
This game was apparently a Romanized
version of a Greek
game called phaininda. The general impression from ancient descriptions is of a game quite similar to rugby. Additional descriptions suggest a line was drawn in the dirt, and that the teams would endeavor to keep the ball behind their side of the line and prevent the opponents from reaching it. This seems rather like an 'inverted' form of football. If the opponents had the ball on their side of the line, the objective would seem to be to get in and "pass" it to another player, or somehow get it back over the line.
Another remote Roman ancestor of rugby may be a game called trigon
, which involved three players passing a ball to one another by hand. The ball was usually small and hard, but occasionally it was a follis or large bladder-ball.
Italy is home to a number of forms of traditional football, some of which have features which are more similar to rugby, than to association football, such as handling the ball. A prime example of this is calcio Fiorentino
played in Florence
. The Piazza Santa Croce of Florence
is the cradle of this sport, that became known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino ("Florentine kick game") or simply calcio ("kick"). The first official rules of Calcio Fiorentino were recorded in 1580, although the game had been developing around Florence for some time before that date. The game involved teams of 27 kicking and carrying a ball in a giant sandpit set up in the Piazza Santa Croce in the centre of Florence, both teams aiming for their designated point on the perimeter of the sandpit.
British communities brought rugby to Genoa
between 1890 and 1895, with other games in Italy around 1909. The society that organised the first games dissolved soon after them.
Italian rugby's traditional heartland consists of the small country towns in the Po Valley
and other parts of Northern Italy
. One version says that Italian workers returning from France, particularly the south, introduced the game there, and gave it a significant rural/working class base, which still exists in towns such as Treviso
and Rovigo
. A demonstration game was also played in 1910 in Turin
between Racing Club París and Servette of Geneva
. French students also introduced the game to Milan University c. 1911. While each of these events has been hailed as the "origin of Italian rugby", it seems that they probably happened more or less simultaneously and independent of one another, and that the introduction of rugby to Italy was a series of events, rather than a single starting point. Whatever the ultimate origins of the game in northern Italy, the region's proximity to the French rugby heartland helped as well.
The first match played by a representative Italian XV was in 1911, between US Milanese and Voiron of France. On July 25 of the same year the "Propaganda Committee" was formed which in 1928 became the Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR).
An original organisational committee was established in 1911, although it was in 1928 when the body became the FIR.
where they lost 9-0 against Spain
. A week later, a rematch was held in Milan, where Italy beat Spain 3-0. There was a further game in 1928 when Ambrosiana Milano
beat R.C.T. Bucharest 15-3.
The first Italian championship
, won by Ambrosiana Milano, took place in 1929, with 6 of the 16 teams that existed in Italy.
In 1934 the FIR became founding members of FIRA (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur) along with the national teams of Italy, France
, Spain
, Czechoslovakia
, Romania
and Germany
. In 1936 Italy took part in the Fira European Tournament, in Berlin, along with France
, Germany
and Romania
and in 1937, in Paris, along with France
, Germany
, Romania
, Belgium
and the Netherlands
.
Rugby union spread to other parts of Italy, especially the cities of Rome
, Bologna
, Padua
, Naples
, Brescia
, and Parma
. France was the first of the Championship countries to play Italy at senior level and the inaugural match took place in 1937, France winning 43-5.
The Fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini
rebranded rugby union as palla ovale, deciding it was an evolution of the Roman game harpastum
. The game was used as a vehicle for Fascist unity, and by 1927 rugby union had its own propaganda committee. However, Mussolini found rugby union inconveniently resistant to authority and dropped the sport, and for Fascist purposes turned to volata
, a malleable kind of handball
. Volata never caught on and in 1933 the effort was officially abandoned, however the invention of the game proved damaging to rugby union's popularity and place in Italian sporting culture. After the decline of the volata project, his supporters turned back to rugby in the years leading up to the Second World War as an alternative to soccer, which they saw as an effete English influence. However despite this far right involvement, Italian rugby managed to escape too much of an association with the regime.
(Rovigo
, Padua
and Treviso
) came to assume a prominent position in the Italian rugby union scene earning the name "Republic of the Italian rugby union". Parma
and L'Aquila
also became main centres for rugby union.
which set up their own club sides. Benetton Treviso
for example was able to use this money to produce a dramatic rise in standards. Players of Italian ancestry from Australia
and Argentina
were brought in, and the likes of Frano Botica
, David Campese
, John Kirwan and Michael Lynagh
plied their trade in Italy's top flight. Although the rise in standards was not immediate, the influx of money helped buy in some top foreign coaches such as Mark Ella
and Bernard Fourcarde, which allowed them to develop their own stars such as Massimo Giovanelli
. This change for the better was reflected in their scorelines - for example, when the Italians played the All Blacks
in 1987, they were humiliated 70-6, but when the All Blacks played them in 1991, they found themselves winning only 31-21 in a highly competitive match. Italy held off the Australians 23-20 in 1994, and although Australia beat them 20-7 in the next match, they struggled to do so.
In 1987, the Federazione Italiana Rugby joined the International Rugby Board
(IRB). That same year, the national side were invited to compete in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987
. Italy had to wait until 1988 to play their first Test against a Home Nation. In 1995, the national side finally got their first win against a home nation, against Ireland
in Treviso
, in a Rugby World Cup
warm up. In 1999, the domestic competition ran its 100th tournament, with Benetton Treviso
winning the championship that year.
In 2000, Italy joined the Five Nations Championships, turning the competition into the Six Nations Championship
.
However, rugby has not achieved a national presence, with large areas in southern Italy without any significant clubs. Notable Italian players include:
The Italian national rugby union side
have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and are categorized, by the International Rugby Board
, as a tier one nation. They have competed in the Six Nations Championship
since 2000 and at all the Rugby World Cup
s. Italy's best result at a World Cup was at the 2007 tournament in France
, where they won two of their four pool matches and lost by two points to Scotland
, missing the quarter-finals by three points.
On St. Valentine's Day 2010, Italy lost narrowly to England in Rome (12-17), further consolidating Italy's rise in international rugby, and this rise continued with a 22-21 victory over France on 12 March 2011.
Italy also has a national sevens side
.
and Russia
. It was first held in 2006.
is the main competition for rugby union clubs in Italy. The competition was first contested in 1929, with six clubs. It was altered in 2002 to include just the top 10 sides of Italy. The competition runs from September to May. After a home-and-away season, the top four teams play a knock-out competition to decide the championship. The winners are awarded the Albo d'Oro trophy.
The current teams are:
Below the Super 10, domestic Italian rugby is played in the Campionati Nazionali which consists of:
Serie A: divided into 2 leagues of 12 teams who play each other home and away.
Serie B: divided into 4 leagues of 12 teams who play each other home and away.
An Under 19 Championship and a female competition also exist.
The Coppa Italia
is a knock-out competition for domestic clubs. The competition has been contested annually since 1967, though it was not held from 1974 to 1980, and 1983 to 1994, and again in 1996, 1999 and 2002.
and Aironi
(a new franchise made up of Viadana
and surrounding clubs) were admitted to the RaboDirect Pro 12
on 8 March 2009. The two clubs started playing in the league from the 2010/11 season. The unanimous announcement by Celtic rugby followed a long period of negotiations and planning, starting with a tentative agreement in 2008 to admit two Italian sides. During 2009 the FIR organised a competition to choose which two sides would win the two places. This resulted in a team based in Rome
winning one of the two places, despite the Italian rugby heartland being in the north. This decision was overturned after questions about the viability of the new franchise, with Treviso taking their place. Only after repeated assurances by the FIR of the ability of the two new sides to contribute financially to the league did Celtic rugby finally admit the two teams.
, which is an annual rugby union competition involving leading clubs, regional and provincial teams from the rest of the Six Nations: England, France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Through the 2009–10 season, Italy usually had two to three clubs in the Heineken Cup. Starting in 2010–11, Italy's two Magners League sides will automatically enter the Heineken Cup.
Italy enters 4 clubs: those finishing 3rd and 4th in the Super 10, and the winners of playoffs between 5th and 8th, and 6th and 7th. Clubs had previously competed in the European Shield
, though that particular competition was restructured in 2005.
or Lombardy
in the North of Italy.
Italian players also play for other European rugby clubs, such as those in the Guinness Premiership
.
In the 2007 Six Nations
, Italy finished fourth, their best placing yet.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in the early 1900s. The Super 10
Super 10 (Italian premiership)
The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...
competition is the main national club competition. The two professional teams in the country are active in Pro12 and also participate in the Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...
. Four italian clubs from the national championship compete in the European Challenge Cup
European Challenge Cup
The European Challenge Cup, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Amlin Challenge Cup, is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup. The cup was known as the Parker Pen Shield from 2001 to 2003 and Parker Pen Challenge Cup from 2003 to 2005. The European...
. Italy
Italy national rugby union team
The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of Italy in the sport of rugby union. The team is also known as the Azzurri . Italy have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and since 2000 compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland,...
compete in the Six Nations Championship
Six Nations Championship
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
and Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
and are classified as a tier one nation by the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
.
Governing body
The governing body of Italian rugby union is the Federazione Italiana RugbyFederazione Italiana Rugby
The Italian Rugby Federation is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy.On 25 July 1911 a "Propaganda Committee" was formed to promote the sport of rugby union in Italy...
(FIR). An original organisational committee was established in 1911, although it was in 1928 when the body became the FIR, and in 1987, they joined the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
. In 1934 the FIR became founding members of the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur.
Prehistory
Harpastum
Harpastum, also known as Harpustum, was a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the small ball game. The ball used was small and hard, probably about the size and solidity of a softball...
, which spread throughout their Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, include the province of Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
. Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
writes:
- "Harpastum, which used to be called Phaininda, is the game I like most of all. Great are the exertion and fatigue attendant upon contests of ball-playing, and violent twisting and turning of the neck. Hence Antiphanes, "Damn it, what a pain in the neck I've got." He describes the game thus: "He seized the ball and passed it to a team-mate while dodging another and laughing. He pushed it out of the way of another. Another fellow player he raised to his feet. All the while the crowd resounded with shouts of Out of bounds, Too far, Right beside him, Over his head, On the ground, Up in the air, Too short, Pass it back in the scrum."
Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
, in On Exercise with the Small Ball, describes Harpastum as:
- "better than wrestling or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time, and costs nothing."; it was "profitable training in strategy", and could be "played with varying degrees of strenuousness." Galen adds, "When, for example, people face each other, vigorously attempting to prevent each other from taking the space between, this exercise is a very heavy, vigorous one, involving much use of the hold by the neck, and many wrestling holds."
This game was apparently a Romanized
Romanization (cultural)
Romanization or latinization indicate different historical processes, such as acculturation, integration and assimilation of newly incorporated and peripheral populations by the Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire...
version of a Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
game called phaininda. The general impression from ancient descriptions is of a game quite similar to rugby. Additional descriptions suggest a line was drawn in the dirt, and that the teams would endeavor to keep the ball behind their side of the line and prevent the opponents from reaching it. This seems rather like an 'inverted' form of football. If the opponents had the ball on their side of the line, the objective would seem to be to get in and "pass" it to another player, or somehow get it back over the line.
Another remote Roman ancestor of rugby may be a game called trigon
Trigon (game)
Trigon was a ball game played by the ancient Romans. It probably involved three players standing in a triangle and passing a hard ball back and forth, catching with the right and throwing with the left hand...
, which involved three players passing a ball to one another by hand. The ball was usually small and hard, but occasionally it was a follis or large bladder-ball.
Italy is home to a number of forms of traditional football, some of which have features which are more similar to rugby, than to association football, such as handling the ball. A prime example of this is calcio Fiorentino
Calcio Fiorentino
Calcio Fiorentino was an early form of football that originated in 16th century Italy. The Piazza Santa Croce of Florence is the cradle of this sport, that became known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino or simply calcio .The official rules of calcio were published for the first time in 1580 by...
played in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. The Piazza Santa Croce of Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
is the cradle of this sport, that became known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino ("Florentine kick game") or simply calcio ("kick"). The first official rules of Calcio Fiorentino were recorded in 1580, although the game had been developing around Florence for some time before that date. The game involved teams of 27 kicking and carrying a ball in a giant sandpit set up in the Piazza Santa Croce in the centre of Florence, both teams aiming for their designated point on the perimeter of the sandpit.
Early history
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
between 1890 and 1895, with other games in Italy around 1909. The society that organised the first games dissolved soon after them.
Italian rugby's traditional heartland consists of the small country towns in the Po Valley
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
and other parts of Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
. One version says that Italian workers returning from France, particularly the south, introduced the game there, and gave it a significant rural/working class base, which still exists in towns such as Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
and Rovigo
Rovigo
Rovigo is a town and comune in the Veneto region of North-Eastern Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. -Geography:...
. A demonstration game was also played in 1910 in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
between Racing Club París and Servette of Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. French students also introduced the game to Milan University c. 1911. While each of these events has been hailed as the "origin of Italian rugby", it seems that they probably happened more or less simultaneously and independent of one another, and that the introduction of rugby to Italy was a series of events, rather than a single starting point. Whatever the ultimate origins of the game in northern Italy, the region's proximity to the French rugby heartland helped as well.
The first match played by a representative Italian XV was in 1911, between US Milanese and Voiron of France. On July 25 of the same year the "Propaganda Committee" was formed which in 1928 became the Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR).
An original organisational committee was established in 1911, although it was in 1928 when the body became the FIR.
1920s and Fascist period
The national team played their first game in May 1929 in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
where they lost 9-0 against Spain
Spain national rugby union team
The Spain national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Spain, representing them at rugby union. Spain have been playing rugby since the late 1920s, playing their first international against Italy in 1929. They have qualified for one Rugby World Cup, in 1999 where they were pooled with...
. A week later, a rematch was held in Milan, where Italy beat Spain 3-0. There was a further game in 1928 when Ambrosiana Milano
Amatori Rugby Milano
Amatori Rugby Milano are an Italian rugby union team based in Milan that currently play in Serie A1 ....
beat R.C.T. Bucharest 15-3.
The first Italian championship
Super 10 (Italian premiership)
The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...
, won by Ambrosiana Milano, took place in 1929, with 6 of the 16 teams that existed in Italy.
In 1934 the FIR became founding members of FIRA (Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur) along with the national teams of Italy, France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
, Spain
Spain national rugby union team
The Spain national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Spain, representing them at rugby union. Spain have been playing rugby since the late 1920s, playing their first international against Italy in 1929. They have qualified for one Rugby World Cup, in 1999 where they were pooled with...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia national rugby union team
The Czechoslovakia national rugby union team was the national rugby team of Czechoslovakia, before the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia...
, Romania
Romania national rugby union team
The Romania national rugby union team , nicknamed The Oaks , is the representative side of Romania in rugby union. Long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations, they have participated in all six Rugby World Cups, and currently compete in the first division of the...
and Germany
Germany national rugby union team
Germany is a third-tier Rugby Union playing nation. Germany currently plays at the second level of European rugby but has never managed to qualify for the Rugby World Cup...
. In 1936 Italy took part in the Fira European Tournament, in Berlin, along with France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
, Germany
Germany national rugby union team
Germany is a third-tier Rugby Union playing nation. Germany currently plays at the second level of European rugby but has never managed to qualify for the Rugby World Cup...
and Romania
Romania national rugby union team
The Romania national rugby union team , nicknamed The Oaks , is the representative side of Romania in rugby union. Long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations, they have participated in all six Rugby World Cups, and currently compete in the first division of the...
and in 1937, in Paris, along with France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
, Germany
Germany national rugby union team
Germany is a third-tier Rugby Union playing nation. Germany currently plays at the second level of European rugby but has never managed to qualify for the Rugby World Cup...
, Romania
Romania national rugby union team
The Romania national rugby union team , nicknamed The Oaks , is the representative side of Romania in rugby union. Long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations, they have participated in all six Rugby World Cups, and currently compete in the first division of the...
, Belgium
Belgium national rugby union team
The Belgium national rugby union team represents the third tier rugby playing nation of Belgium. They first played in 1930 and have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. Rugby union in Belgium is administered by the Belgian Rugby Federation...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands national rugby union team
The Netherlands national rugby union team are a national sporting side of the Netherlands, representing them at rugby union. The side first played in 1930.-History:...
.
Rugby union spread to other parts of Italy, especially the cities of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
, and Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
. France was the first of the Championship countries to play Italy at senior level and the inaugural match took place in 1937, France winning 43-5.
The Fascist
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
dictator Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
rebranded rugby union as palla ovale, deciding it was an evolution of the Roman game harpastum
Harpastum
Harpastum, also known as Harpustum, was a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the small ball game. The ball used was small and hard, probably about the size and solidity of a softball...
. The game was used as a vehicle for Fascist unity, and by 1927 rugby union had its own propaganda committee. However, Mussolini found rugby union inconveniently resistant to authority and dropped the sport, and for Fascist purposes turned to volata
Volata
Volata is a ball game that was developed in fascist Italy as a substitute for association football and rugby union. It was played by eight-man sides to rules that were a hybrid of those for football and handball....
, a malleable kind of handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
. Volata never caught on and in 1933 the effort was officially abandoned, however the invention of the game proved damaging to rugby union's popularity and place in Italian sporting culture. After the decline of the volata project, his supporters turned back to rugby in the years leading up to the Second World War as an alternative to soccer, which they saw as an effete English influence. However despite this far right involvement, Italian rugby managed to escape too much of an association with the regime.
Post-war period
The Second World War interrupted Italian rugby union, as it did in other rugby-playing nations. Post-war, there was a desire to return to normality and Italian rugby union entered a new dimension thanks to the help of Allied troops in Italy. Very soon the VenetoVeneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
(Rovigo
Rovigo
Rovigo is a town and comune in the Veneto region of North-Eastern Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. -Geography:...
, Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
and Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
) came to assume a prominent position in the Italian rugby union scene earning the name "Republic of the Italian rugby union". Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and L'Aquila
L'Aquila
L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...
also became main centres for rugby union.
1980s and 90s
In the 1980s, a peculiar set of economic circumstances arose, which helped bolster the game further. In an effort to promote the game, sinking money into rugby became virtually tax-free, and large amounts of sponsorship money went into the game, from companies as large as BenettonBenetton Group
Benetton Group S.p.A. is a global luxury fashion brand, based in Treviso, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in Milan....
which set up their own club sides. Benetton Treviso
Benetton Rugby Treviso
Benetton Rugby Treviso are an Italian professional rugby union club currently competing in the RaboDirect Pro12 and the Heineken Cup.They are based in Treviso in Veneto, and owned by the Benetton clothing company....
for example was able to use this money to produce a dramatic rise in standards. Players of Italian ancestry from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
were brought in, and the likes of Frano Botica
Frano Botica
Frano Michael Botica is a former rugby union and rugby league player who represented his country at both sports and also played for Croatia in a rugby union world cup qualifying match.-Rugby union:...
, David Campese
David Campese
David Ian Campese , also known as Campo, is a former Australian rugby union player. Campese was capped by the Wallabies 101 times, and held the world record for the most tries in test matches until Daisuke Ohata scored his 65th try playing for Japan on 14 May 2006...
, John Kirwan and Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh
Michael Lynagh is a former Australian rugby union footballer who played as a Fly-half.Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped 72 times for Australia, and was captain from 1993 to 1995. He was the world points scoring record...
plied their trade in Italy's top flight. Although the rise in standards was not immediate, the influx of money helped buy in some top foreign coaches such as Mark Ella
Mark Ella
Mark Gordon Ella is an Indigenous Australian former rugby union player, often considered as one of his country's all-time greats in that sport. In a relatively short career , Mark Ella established himself as one of the all-time greats in world rugby union...
and Bernard Fourcarde, which allowed them to develop their own stars such as Massimo Giovanelli
Massimo Giovanelli
Massimo Giovanelli is a former Italian rugby union player. He played as a flanker. He was one of the best Italian rugby players of his generation....
. This change for the better was reflected in their scorelines - for example, when the Italians played the All Blacks
All Blacks
The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
in 1987, they were humiliated 70-6, but when the All Blacks played them in 1991, they found themselves winning only 31-21 in a highly competitive match. Italy held off the Australians 23-20 in 1994, and although Australia beat them 20-7 in the next match, they struggled to do so.
In 1987, the Federazione Italiana Rugby joined the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
(IRB). That same year, the national side were invited to compete in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987
1987 Rugby World Cup
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the first ever tournament with New Zealand hosting seventeen pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final with Australia being the junior partner hosting seven pool matches, two...
. Italy had to wait until 1988 to play their first Test against a Home Nation. In 1995, the national side finally got their first win against a home nation, against Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...
in Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, in a Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
warm up. In 1999, the domestic competition ran its 100th tournament, with Benetton Treviso
Benetton Rugby Treviso
Benetton Rugby Treviso are an Italian professional rugby union club currently competing in the RaboDirect Pro12 and the Heineken Cup.They are based in Treviso in Veneto, and owned by the Benetton clothing company....
winning the championship that year.
Present day
Six Nations Championship
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
.
However, rugby has not achieved a national presence, with large areas in southern Italy without any significant clubs. Notable Italian players include:
- Ivan FrancescatoIvan FrancescatoIvan Francescato was an Italian rugby union player.Francescato began his career in his native city, Treviso, like his five elder siblings before him, all of whom played the game at high levels; three made the Italian National team, Bruno, Nello and Rino. He got his technical and athletic training...
- Paolo VaccariPaolo VaccariPaolo Vaccari is an Italian former rugby union player who was a versatile back: he used to play as Centre, Wing or Full-back.He is currently a sports manager.-Biography:...
- Carlo ChecchinatoCarlo ChecchinatoCarlo Checchinato was an Italian rugby union player and is the current team manager for the Italian national team....
- Massimo GiovanelliMassimo GiovanelliMassimo Giovanelli is a former Italian rugby union player. He played as a flanker. He was one of the best Italian rugby players of his generation....
- MauroMauro BergamascoMauro Bergamasco is an Italian rugby union footballer. He predominantly plays as an open-side flanker, although his versatility means has also played a number of international games on the wing, and started at scrum-half in an infamously error-prone performance...
and Mirco BergamascoMirco BergamascoMirco Bergamasco is an Italian rugby union footballer. He primarily plays centre, presently with Parisian club Racing Métro in the French Top 14, and internationally with Italy...
National team
Italy national rugby union team
The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of Italy in the sport of rugby union. The team is also known as the Azzurri . Italy have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and since 2000 compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland,...
have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and are categorized, by the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
, as a tier one nation. They have competed in the Six Nations Championship
Six Nations Championship
The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
since 2000 and at all the Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
s. Italy's best result at a World Cup was at the 2007 tournament in France
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
, where they won two of their four pool matches and lost by two points to Scotland
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...
, missing the quarter-finals by three points.
On St. Valentine's Day 2010, Italy lost narrowly to England in Rome (12-17), further consolidating Italy's rise in international rugby, and this rise continued with a 22-21 victory over France on 12 March 2011.
Italy also has a national sevens side
Italy national rugby union team (sevens)
The Italy sevens national rugby union team is Italy's national rugby union sevens team. They compete in the IRB Sevens World Series, and have done so since the series' was introduced in 1999. Although they do compete in the series, they do not participate in every leg...
.
Nations Cup
The Nations Cup is a tournament involving Argentina A, Italy A, PortugalPortugal national rugby union team
The Portugal national rugby union team is a third tier rugby union side representing Portugal. They first played in 1935 and now compete in the European Nations Cup. Rugby union in Portugal is administered by the Federação Portuguesa de Rugby. Portugal qualified for their first Rugby World Cup in...
and Russia
Russia national rugby union team
The Russian National Rugby Union Team, is the national team representing Russia at the sport of rugby union.Rugby union in Russia is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia . The RUR is the official successor union of the Soviet Union and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s...
. It was first held in 2006.
Domestic
The Super 10Super 10 (Italian premiership)
The withdrawal of Viadana and Benetton Treviso from the league has been compounded by club mergers. Rugby Viadana, Gran Parma and Colorno have merged to form GranDucato Rugby. Overmach Parma and Noceto have merged to form Crociati, both new clubs to be based in Parma. These changes created 2...
is the main competition for rugby union clubs in Italy. The competition was first contested in 1929, with six clubs. It was altered in 2002 to include just the top 10 sides of Italy. The competition runs from September to May. After a home-and-away season, the top four teams play a knock-out competition to decide the championship. The winners are awarded the Albo d'Oro trophy.
The current teams are:
- AlmavivA CapitolinaUnione Rugby CapitolinaUnione Rugby Capitolina is an Italian rugby union club. They are based in Rome.-History:The team was founded in 1996. Capitolina won the Italian under-19 trophy in 2002/3 beating rivals Lazio-Primavera Rugby in the final held at Stadio Flaminio....
- Futura Park RomaRugby Roma OlimpicSocietà Sportiva Dilettantistica Rugby Roma Olimpic are an Italian professional rugby union team.Based in Rome, the senior team competed in the Italian top tier competition, the Super 10....
- Femi-CZ RovigoRugby RovigoRugby Rovigo Delta are an Italian rugby union club currently competing in Super 10.They are based in Rovigo in Veneto....
- MPS ViadanaViadana RugbyRugby Viadana is an Italian rugby union club that until 2010 competed in the Super 10. They are based in Viadana . The club was established in 1970, and has since won the Italian championship in 2002, and the Coppa Italia three times. They also compete in European rugby competitions and were...
- Benetton TrevisoBenetton Rugby TrevisoBenetton Rugby Treviso are an Italian professional rugby union club currently competing in the RaboDirect Pro12 and the Heineken Cup.They are based in Treviso in Veneto, and owned by the Benetton clothing company....
- Casino' di VeneziaVenezia Mestre RugbyVenezia Mestre Rugby FC are an Italian rugby union club. They are based in Venice in Veneto. They were formed in 1986 following the merger of two clubs Venezia Rugby Football Club and Rugby Mestre...
- Cammi CalvisanoGhial Rugby CalvisanoRugby Calvisano are an Italian rugby union club currently competing in National Championship of Excellence.They are based in Calvisano , in Lombardy....
- Cariparma Rugby ParmaParma RugbyRugby Parma F.C. is an Italian rugby union club. They are based in Parma in Emilia-Romagna. They were known as Overmach Rugby Parma for sponsorship reasons.-History:...
- Carrera Petrarca PadovaPetrarca PadovaPetrarca Padova Rugby is an Italian rugby union club currently competing in Super 10. They are based in Padua in Veneto. They were founded in 1947 by Pine Bonaiti, Lalo Santini and Gastone Munaron near the University College Antonianum...
- Plusvalore Gran ParmaGran Rugby-GranDucato Parma Rugby:Gran Ducato Parma Rugby was formed in June 2010 through the merger of Gran Parma Rugby, Rugby Colorno and Rugby Viadana. With the formation of Aironi to play in the Magners League the best players and sponsorship from the three participating clubs was concentrated in this...
Below the Super 10, domestic Italian rugby is played in the Campionati Nazionali which consists of:
Serie A: divided into 2 leagues of 12 teams who play each other home and away.
Serie B: divided into 4 leagues of 12 teams who play each other home and away.
An Under 19 Championship and a female competition also exist.
The Coppa Italia
Coppa Italia (rugby)
The Coppa Italia is a rugby union competition in Italy for domestic clubs. The competition is second to the Super 10. The competition has been contested annually since 1967, though it was not held from 1974 to 1980, and 1983 to 1994, and again in 1996, 1999 and 2002...
is a knock-out competition for domestic clubs. The competition has been contested annually since 1967, though it was not held from 1974 to 1980, and 1983 to 1994, and again in 1996, 1999 and 2002.
Pro 12
Two Italian sides, TrevisoBenetton Rugby Treviso
Benetton Rugby Treviso are an Italian professional rugby union club currently competing in the RaboDirect Pro12 and the Heineken Cup.They are based in Treviso in Veneto, and owned by the Benetton clothing company....
and Aironi
Aironi
Aironi Rugby are an Italian professional rugby club competing in the RaboDirect Pro12 and the Heineken Cup. They represent the Italian regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.- Home ground :...
(a new franchise made up of Viadana
Viadana
Viadana may refer to:* Lodovico Grossi da Viadana , an Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar* Viadana, Lombardy, a town in the province of Mantua, Lombardy, northern Italy* Viadana Rugby, a rugby union club based in the town...
and surrounding clubs) were admitted to the RaboDirect Pro 12
Celtic League (rugby union)
The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
on 8 March 2009. The two clubs started playing in the league from the 2010/11 season. The unanimous announcement by Celtic rugby followed a long period of negotiations and planning, starting with a tentative agreement in 2008 to admit two Italian sides. During 2009 the FIR organised a competition to choose which two sides would win the two places. This resulted in a team based in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
winning one of the two places, despite the Italian rugby heartland being in the north. This decision was overturned after questions about the viability of the new franchise, with Treviso taking their place. Only after repeated assurances by the FIR of the ability of the two new sides to contribute financially to the league did Celtic rugby finally admit the two teams.
Heineken Cup
Italy field teams in the European knock-out competition, the Heineken CupHeineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...
, which is an annual rugby union competition involving leading clubs, regional and provincial teams from the rest of the Six Nations: England, France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Through the 2009–10 season, Italy usually had two to three clubs in the Heineken Cup. Starting in 2010–11, Italy's two Magners League sides will automatically enter the Heineken Cup.
European Challenge Cup
The European Challenge Cup in rugby union, known as the Parker Pen Shield from 2001 to 2003, Parker Pen Challenge Cup from 2003 to 2005, and the Amlin Challenge Cup since 2009, is the sister competition to the Heineken Cup. It is competed for by teams from England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Romania on a knock-out basis.Italy enters 4 clubs: those finishing 3rd and 4th in the Super 10, and the winners of playoffs between 5th and 8th, and 6th and 7th. Clubs had previously competed in the European Shield
European Shield
The European Shield was a reprechage tournament for teams knocked out in the first round of the European Challenge Cup in 2002-03 and 2003-04. The name "European Shield" had previously been used for the now renamed European Challenge Cup....
, though that particular competition was restructured in 2005.
Popularity
There are 1,024 rugby clubs within Italy. These clubs support 73,419 registered male players, as well as 8,118 registered female players. Many teams are either from VenetoVeneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
or Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
in the North of Italy.
Italian players also play for other European rugby clubs, such as those in the Guinness Premiership
Guinness Premiership
The English Premiership, also currently known as the Aviva Premiership because of the league's sponsorship by Aviva, is a professional league competition for rugby union football clubs in the top division of the English rugby system. There are twelve clubs in the Premiership...
.
In the 2007 Six Nations
2007 Six Nations Championship
The 2007 RBS 6 Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship...
, Italy finished fourth, their best placing yet.
External links
- Federugby.it
- Statistics on Rugbydata.com
- La Gazzetta dello Sport (English)
- Rugby on Corriere dello Sport (Italian)
- La Repubblica sports pages (Italian)
- RAI rugby pages