Italy national rugby league team
|
|||||||
| Nickname | The Azzuri | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governing body | Federazione Italiana Rugby League | ||||||
| Region | Europe | ||||||
| Head coach | Cameron Ciraldo | ||||||
| Captain | Anthony Minichiello | ||||||
| Most caps | Adam Capovilla | ||||||
| Home stadium | Stadio Plebiscito | ||||||
| RLIF ranking | 12th | ||||||
|
|||||||
| First international | |||||||
 France 29–17 Italy  (Cahors, France; 1951) |
|||||||
| Biggest win | |||||||
Italy 92–6 Russia  (Stadio Plebiscito, Padova; 15 October 2011) |
|||||||
| Biggest defeat | |||||||
 Scotland 104–0 Italy (Stadio Plebiscito, Padova; 17 October 2009) |
|||||||
| World Cup | |||||||
| Appearances | 1 (first time in 2013) | ||||||
| Best result | Group stage, 2013 | ||||||
The Italy national rugby league team represents Italy in international rugby league football. The team dates back from the 1950s after the formation of a domestic competition in the country, and in the 1960s they played Australia, France and a number of English teams.
The game disappeared in Italy in the 1970s and no international matches were played. The team was revived in the mid-90s by two Italo-Australian Rugby League enthusiasts (Domenic Pezzano & John Benigni) and Italy began competing in various international tournaments. The team qualified for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, their first time to the tournament.
Currently the team is ranked 12th in the world, behind Scotland. Australian Trent Barrett coaches the team in qualifying matches, while Paul Broadbent will coach them in European Championship matches, and Sydney Roosters full back Anthony Minichiello captains the side.
Contents
History
In 1950, a team from Turin tours the North of England. Italy later runs a domestic competition. A year later the first official match of the Italian national team took place in Cahors, France. Italy lost 29–17 although the Azzurri ended the first half leading 10–7.
Sixteen official matches were played against English teams in the season 1952–53, as well as a triangular tournament between Italy, France and England.
In 1958, in Treviso under the Italian Federation of Amateur Rugby 13 (FIAR 13) was formed and was recognised by the Rugby Football League. With this recognition and funding from England, the sport of rugby league became popular in Italy. In their first year, the FIAR had 24 clubs and 620 players.
In 1960, Italy played Australia in two international matches held in Italy, the results were 37–15 and 67–22 losses. In the late 1960s, threats made by the rugby union governing body Italian Rugby Federation to ban players who played rugby league from their sport had the effect of killing off the sport in Italy by the 1970s. As a consequence the Italian national team ceased to exist.
In the mid-1990s the team were revived by two Italian-Australians, Domenic Pezzano and John Benigni, known as 'The Italian Rugby League A XIII' (IRL A XIII) was formed in 1993. Pezzano coached Italy in the Coca Cola Rugby League World Sevens in Australia with the team being predominately players from Italy and one Italo-Australian player captained the team – Orazio D'arro in this tournament, Pezzano also coached the Italian team that participated in the first ever Super League World Nines tournament which was hosted by Fiji, that team was made up off Italian players, Italian Origin players and included 1st Graders such as Dean Schifilliti, Mark Corvo, Luke Davico and Italian dual International Orazio Arancio.
After that event, the Italia Rugby League began competing in various international tournaments, such as the Super League rugby league nines tournament in Fiji, World Sevens, St.Marys Sevens, Wollogong Sevens and the Mediterranean Cup in 1999. They attempted to qualify for the 2000 Rugby League World Cup and ended up in the Rugby League Emerging Nations Tournament in which they were runners-up to British Amateur Rugby League Association.
In 2002, the Azzuri were back playing internationals in Italy with a triangular tournament featuring Scotland and Russia. Italy lost to Tartarstan of Russia but tied their second game with Scotland 16 all. In 2003 Italy played Scotland again and contested the Ionio Cup against Greece, which they won.
In 2006, Italy played three matches, two against South Africa and one against British Amateur Rugby League Association.[1] In 2006 the Federazione of Italia Rugby League (FIRL) were founded.
The Federazione of Italia Rugby League was officially moved to the "official observer" status by the Rugby League European Federation from an unranked position on 15 April 2008.[2]
Italy won the RLEF European Shield in 2008 and 2009, and as such were drafted into the 2009 European Cup following Russia's withdrawal from the tournament. During this tournament, Italy were handed their record defeat by Scotland, but they did manage to record one victory, over Serbia at The Old Parish in Maesteg, Wales.[3][4]
In Autumn 2010 Italy embarked on a short tour of Wales, culminating in a match in Wrexham on 6 October in which they faced Wales for the first time in a full Rugby League international. The Italian side obtained a remarkable 13–6 victory, the first against a national team of the British Isles.[5]
In 2013 they won a warm up match against 3rd ranked England 15–14 making it their most stunning victory.[6]
2013 World Cup Qualifying
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
In 2011, Italy contested the qualifying tournament for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, competing against Russia, Serbia and Lebanon. Coached by Carlo Napolitano and captained by Anthony Minichiello, Italy's draw with Lebanon was enough for them to gain the 14th and final place in the 2013 World Cup.[7]
2013 World Cup
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Italy were drawn in Pool C alongside Scotland, Tonga and they also played an inter-group match against co-hosts Wales. Their tournament began with an upset victory over the co-hosts at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. In their second match, the 'Azzuri' took on Scotland who were coming off an upset win of their own against Tonga. The match turned out to be a thriller and it was tight with a high scoring draw being the end result. Italy then had to just win their last pool match against Tonga after Scotland won their match and finished their pool-stage campaign with the same points differential the Italians were currently on. Tonga had nothing but pride to play for after their hopes of qualification had vanished but they shocked Napolitano's men by keeping them scoreless and therefore eliminating Italy from having any chance to play in the 2013 World Cup knockout round.
2017 World Cup Qualifying
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Italy participated in the qualification for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The first stage of qualifying involved having to finish in the top 3 in their 2014–15 European Shield competition. Italy only managed to secure qualification for the 'final qualification tournament' after winning their second to last game against bottom placed Ukraine. Italy finished the Shield in third place with 3 wins and 3 defeats in six matches.
The final qualification tournament will consist of 6 teams - the top three teams from the European B tournament, the winners of the European C tournament and seeded nations Wales and Ireland. The tournament will feature two groups of three teams playing in a single round-robin format. The winners of each group will qualify for the World Cup, while the runners-up will face each other in a play-off match on 5 November 2016 to determine the final spot. A seeded draw will take place to determine the groups on 5 November 2015.
2013 World Cup squad
The Italy national team squad selected for the 2013 World Cup tournament (caps and points apply for after the tournament finished):
Competitions
| Official Rankings as of December 2015[8] | |||
| Rank | Change | Team | Points |
| 1 |  |
 New Zealand |
897.00 |
| 2 |  Australia |
719.00 | |
| 3 |  England |
655.00 | |
| 4 |  Samoa |
280.00 | |
| 5 | France |
209.00 | |
| 6 |  |
 Ireland |
162.00 |
| 7 |  |
 Fiji |
147.00 |
| 8 | |
 Wales |
132.00 |
| 9 | |
Scotland |
121.00 |
| 10 | |
 United States |
102.00 |
| 11 | |
 Serbia |
72.00 |
| 12 | |
Italy |
65.00 |
| 13 |  Canada |
62.00 | |
| 14 | |
 Papua New Guinea |
60.00 |
| 15 | |
Russia |
46.00 |
| 16 | |
 Tonga |
40.00 |
| 17 | |
 Belgium |
40.00 |
| 18 |  Malta |
32.00 | |
| 19 | |
 Germany |
28.00 |
| 20 |  Lebanon |
27.00 | |
| 21 | |
 Spain |
26.00 |
| 22 | |
 Cook Islands |
23.00 |
| 23 |  Ukraine |
22.00 | |
| 24 | |
 Greece |
21.00 |
| 25 | |
 Denmark |
20.00 |
| 26 | |
 Norway |
19.00 |
| 27 | |
 Jamaica |
16.00 |
| 28 | |
 Netherlands |
15.00 |
| 29 | |
 Sweden |
15.00 |
| 30 | |
 Czech Republic |
14.00 |
| 31 | |
 South Africa |
13.00 |
| 32 | |
 Niue |
4.00 |
| 33 |  Hungary |
2.00 | |
| 34 |  Latvia |
2.00 | |
| 35 |  Morocco |
0.00 | |
Italy or Italy A has participated in:
- World Sevens (1995, 1997, plus the qualification tournament in 2003)
- Superleague World Nines (1996)
- Emerging Nations Tournament (2000) – Runners-up
- Ionio Cup (2003 and 2004) – Winners Italy v Greece
- St.Mary's World Sevens - Australia
- Wollongong Sevens - Australia
- Columbus Cup between USA Tomahawks and Italy (2006)- Champions
- RLEF European Shield (2008 and 2009) – Champions
- Aus-Med Shield (2009) – Runners-up
- Rugby League European Cup (2009)
- 2013 Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers (2011)
- 2013 Rugby League World Cup
Notable players that have played for Italy
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Anthony Minichiello
- Josh Mantellato
- Anthony Laffranchi
- Paul Vaughan
- James Tedesco
- Cameron Ciraldo
- Aidan Guerra
- Mark Minichiello
- Dean Schifilitti
- Paul Dezolt
- David Penna
- David Riolo
- Neil Piccinelli
- Greg Florimo
- Mark Corvo
- Luke Davico
- Shannon Donato
- James Tedesco
- Paul Franze
- Terry Campese
- Jason Bulgarelli
- Frank Napoli
- Paul Pensinni
- Darren Capovilla
- Orazio Arancio
- Joel Riethmuller
- Brendan Santi
- Kade Snowden
Notable players of Italian Heritage
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Craig Gower
- Craig Salvatori
- Ciriaco Mescia
- Andrew Ettingshausen
- Fred Pagano
- Paul Merlo
- Tas Baitieri
- Micheal Sorridimmi
- Laurie Spina
- Gennaro Panzarino
- Joe Squadrito
- Frank Marino
- Joe Vitanza
Overall record
The overall record for the Italian Rugby League, including all national team, competitions, international friendlies, tours and Italy A matches (all affiliated matches).
| Against | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 53 | 26 | 25 | 2 | 49.57% |
Results and fixtures
- Below are the previous 5 matches of the national team. For all past match results, see the team's results page.
|
18 July 2015
|
| Ukraine |
12–40 | Italy |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
National University of State Taxation Service of Ukraine, Irpin
|
Kits
Italy's kit suppliers are Fi-ta.
     Home Kit |
   Away Kit |
See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
References
- ↑ Italia Rugby League History
- ↑ RLEF – Italy Profile
- ↑ European Cup Relegation Match Report – Italy – Serbia
- ↑ Italy V Serbia Match Details
- ↑ http://www.rleague.com/db/article.php?id=37814
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/oct/19/england-italy-rugby-league-world-cup-warm-up
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ RLIF Rankings.
External links
| Unified | |
|---|---|
| Men | |
| Women | |
| At the multi-sport events | |
.jpg){kind=link}
