Italy national rugby union team

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Italy
Union	Federazione Italiana Rugby
Nickname(s)	Azzurri
Coach	Pierre Berbizier
Captain	Marco Bortolami
Top scorer	Diego Dominguez (1010)
Team colours		Change colours
First international
Spain 9 - 0 Italy (20 May 1929)
Largest win
Czech Republic 8 - 104 Italy (18 May 1994)
Worst defeat
South Africa 101 - 0 Italy (19 June 1999)
World Cup
Appearances	5 (First in 1987)
Best result	Two wins, 2003

The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of Italy in the sport of rugby union. The team are also known as the Azzurri (blues). Italy have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and today are considered one of the best rugby nations in Europe. Italy play in blue jerseys.

Italy really came to prominence following 2000 when they became a part of the Five Nations, making it the Six Nations. Italy have also competed at every Rugby World Cup since the first tournament in 1987. Their best result thus far has been in 2003 where they managed two wins during the pool stages.

Italy has around 600 clubs and 47,000 junior and senior players. They have taken part in the Six Nations Championship since 2000. The sport is enjoying a renaissance with more media coverage than ever before, with rugby union especially popular in Rome, L'Aquila and in the northern cities of Treviso (as well as the whole Veneto), Milan, Genoa, Parma and Bologna.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 Post 1945 1.3 2000 onwards 2 Notable players 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Forms of football involving both hands and feet have long been played in Italy from Roman times to the medieval era. It is normally said that Rugby union was first introduced into Italy by French students at Milan University in 1911 but it has been established that British communities brought rugby to Genoa between 1890 and 1895. It remains stronger in the North of Italy than elsewhere.

The first documented rugby union match played in Italy was a demonstration game played in 1910 in Turin between Racing Club París and Servette of Geneva. The society that organised the game didn't have a long life and dissolved after this first game but the game became known in Milan. The first match played by an Italian team was a year later US Milanese against Voiron of France. On July 25 of the same year the "Propaganda Committee" was formed which in 1928 became the Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR). 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 May of the same year Italy played their first international losing 9-0 against Spain in Barcelona.

After the formation of FIRA in 1934, which brought together the national teams of Italy, France, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany rugby union spreads through Italy, especially the cities of Milan, Rome, Turin, Bologna, Padua, Naples, Genoa, Brescia, Treviso, Rovigo 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.

[edit] Post 1945

World War Two interrupted Italian rugby union. After World War Two, there was a desire to return to normal and Italian rugby union entered a new dimension thanks to the help of Allied troops in Italy. But Italy followed the French model until the 70s. Very soon Veneto (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 were also main centres for rugby union.

In the 70s rugby union made enormous progress thanks to great foreign players (John Kirwan, Botha, Campese, Lynagh) and coaches (Saby, Bish, Greenwood, Nelie Smith) in the Italian championship. Even foreign coaches were and continue to be chosen for the national team, like Bertrande Fourcade and Georges Costas. In 1973 the national team went on a tour of South Africa, coached by ex-Springbok prop Amos Du Ploony. Tours of England and Scotland followed, even games against Australia and New Zealand, the masters of their day.

Since 1980 Italy has been chasing the dream of playing in the 5 Nations. Consistently good results against nations that now play in the European Nations Cup (Romania, Spain, Georgia etc), and the occasional win against the major nations such as France, Scotland, Wales or Ireland meant that they were often talked about as strong candidates.

The Azzurri took part in the first ever Rugby World Cup match against New Zealand on 22 May 1987. The match proved a one sided affair with New Zealand convincing 70-6 winners against a young Italian side. John Kirwan, later to become the Italian national coach, scored one of the tournament’s greatest ever tries for the All Blacks.

At 1995 World Cup they came close to beating England losing 20-27. The Italians then built a very formidable side in the 1990s and recorded a lot of victories over Five nations opposition, including consecutive victories over Ireland. They beat Ireland twice in 1997 on January 4 37-29 at Lansdowne Road and on December 20 37-22 in Bologna.

On March 22, 1997 they recorded their first and so far only win over France 40-32 (in Grenoble). In January 1998 Scotland were the victims with Italy winning 25-21 (in Treviso); in the same year in the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers, they lost 23-15 against England at Huddersfield, but they complained for a try of Alessandro Troncon judged not good by the referee.

[edit] 2000 onwards

Italy finally joined the Six Nations Championship in 2000 but their admission coincided with the departure of some of their best players. Nevertheless they won their opening game against the reigning champions Scotland 34-20.

Since then they have struggled to compete against the other nations and their participation was called into question, however they answered their critics by playing a more disciplined game. The 2001 and 2002 tournaments were particularly disappointing as they did not win a single game. Coach Brad Johnstone was sacked in 2002 after an alleged show of 'player power'.

John Kirwan was then appointed coach. They managed to get their second win in 2003 30-22 against Wales and Italy avoided the wooden spoon for the first time.

They followed up by winning two games at the World Cup, another first, though the tournament was ultimately disappointing as the Welsh gained revenge with a 27-15 success that meant that Italy were the only Six Nations country not to advance to the knock-out stage. Their third win came against Scotland in 2004.

With many of their top players also involved in European club competition, the overall standard of play is improving constantly but it is likely to be a long time before Italy win their first Six Nations Championship. More and more Italians are coming to watch rugby union games and whereas before most of the fans at the Stadio Flaminio were away fans, now Italy has a good home crowd. One cause for optimism in Italian rugby is that their star players tend to be young and are likely to improve with time. Moreover, the budget of F.I.R. has had an impressive growth: currently €21 million is available.

Italy, along with other nations, had made good use of IRB rules which allowed them to select foreign born players if they had Italian ancestry or had lived in Italy for a qualifying period of 3 years. From 2004 they announced that they would only pick three such 'non-Italians' per team in order to develop their own domestic players.

In 2005 Italy finished bottom of the table again and failed to win a single game Kirwan was sacked and replaced with Pierre Berbizier. Italy then went on a tour of Argentina where they surprised many by beating the Pumas 30-29 and drawing the series 1-1 (the only 2005 victory of a northern emisphere team visiting a southern emisphere team). However the Pumas had their revenge when they visited Genoa and beat Italy 39-22.

In the 2006 Six Nations Championship the Italian team have peformed strongly against every team they have played so far, leading against both England and France in the 1st half of the recent Tests, but lost their first three games. They did, however, get a creditable 18-18 draw away to Wales, their first ever away point in the tournament, and were unlucky not to draw with Scotland in Rome in the final game, losing 10-13 courtesy of a late Scottish penalty. Italy will play the Rugby World Cup 2007 in Pool C, against New Zealand, Scotland, Romania and the team winning Repechage 1.

[edit] Notable players

Matteo Barbini Mario Battaglini Mauro Bergamasco Mirco Bergamasco Marco Bolesan Marco Bortolami Gonzalo Canale Martin Castrogiovanni Carlo Checchinato Marcello Cutitta Massimo Cuttitta Davide Dal Maso Denis Dallan Manuel Dallan Roland de Marigny Andrea De Rossi Carlo Del Fava Santiago Dellapè Diego Dominguez Carlo Festuccia

Ivan Francescato Alessandro Ghini Paul Griffen Giorgio Intoppa Andrea Lo Cicero Andrea Masi Alessandro Moscardi Carlos Nieto Ludovico Nitoglia Fabio Ongaro Luciano Orquera Scott Palmer Sergio Parisse Aaron Persico Salvatore Perugini Walter Pozzebon Kaine Robertson Cristian Stoica Alessandro Troncon Rima Wakarua

[edit] See also

• Rugby union in Italy
• Six Nations Championship
• World Cup
• Super 10 (Italian premiership)

[edit] External links

• Federazione Italiana Rugby official site
• Italian rugby union news from Planet Rugby
• Italian Rugby Friends