Benetton Rugby Treviso

Benetton Rugby Treviso

Full name	Benetton Rugby Treviso
Union	Federazione Italiana Rugby
Founded	1932 (1932)
Location	Treviso, Italy
Ground(s)	Stadio Comunale di Monigo (Capacity: 6,700)
President	Amerino Zatta
Director of Rugby	Marius Goosen
Coach(es)	Kieran Crowley
Captain(s)	Alessandro Zanni
League(s)	Pro12
2014–15	11th
1st kit 2nd kit
Official website
www.benettonrugby.it

Benetton Rugby Treviso (Italian pronunciation: [ˌbenetˈton ˈrɛɡbi treˈviːzo] or Italian pronunciation: [ˌbenetˈton ˈraɡbi treˈviːzo]) is an Italian professional rugby union team based in Treviso, Veneto competing in the Guinness Pro12 and the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Treviso was founded in 1932 and has won 15 Italian national championships. The Treviso rugby team has been owned by the Benetton clothing company since 1979. Treviso has competed in the Pro12 since 2010, and had previously competed in the Italian domestic championship.

Treviso have supplied a large number of players to the Italian national team, such as Alessandro Zanni and Leonardo Ghiraldini. Several notable foreign players have played for Treviso, including Rugby World Cup winners Craig Green, John Kirwan and Michael Lynagh.

The President of Treviso Rugby is Amerino Zatta.

History

Amateur era: 1932–1995

Treviso rugby team was founded in 1932. The club won its first honour when it took the 1952 Italian premiership. Benetton Treviso won its first Italian Cup in 1970, and in 1978 won the Italian premiership again. The year after Benetton became the main sponsor, the name of the team became "Benetton Rugby Treviso". Treviso won the domestic premiership in 1983, then again in 1989, and in the 1992 season.

Professional era: 1995–present

Rugby turned professional after 1995. Benetton Treviso dominated the Italian league from 1997 until 2010, winning the championship 10 times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) during those 14 seasons, and twice finishing second.^[1] They also won the Italian Cup in 1998.

Benetton Treviso has competed in the Heineken Cup competition almost every year since the competition began in 1995 along with the professional era. Benetton Treviso competed in the inaugural 1995–96 Heineken Cup, winning one game and losing one. The following season they played four matches, winning one game. In the 1998–99 Heineken Cup, they won three games. Benetton Treviso spent the 2000–01 and 2002–03 seasons in the European Challenge Cup, but have appeared in the Heineken Cup in each season since then. They won half of their games during the 2004–05 Heineken Cup, but won only one match in the following four seasons (at Newport Gwent Dragons in 2007). In the 2009–10 Heineken Cup opener,they defeated reigning French Top 14 champions Perpignan 9–8 in Treviso.

Following the 2009–10 season, Treviso left the Italian domestic competition, and in 2010–11 was one of two Italian teams to join the Celtic League to play against clubs from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Both Italian teams were guaranteed places annually into the Heineken Cup, which had previously been awarded to the two top teams in the domestic Italian National Championship of Excellence.^[2] An agreement had been reached in early March 2010 to allow two Italian teams a place in the Celtic League. In 2010, it was proposed that Aironi and a new team Praetorians Roma would join,^[3] but Treviso were nominated instead. Treviso and a combination of Duchi Nord-Ovest rugby clubs could not agree to form one regional representative club and lost out in the first round of bidding.^[4] However, Pretorians Roma failed to satisfy financial criteria, and Treviso instead joined the Celtic League (renamed the Pro12).^[5] Treviso finished their first two season in the Pro12 (2010–11 and 2011–12) in 10th place, while in the 2012–13 season they finished 7th.

Honours

• National Championship of Excellence:
  • Champions: 1956, 1978, 1983, 1989, 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010
• Coppa Italia:
  • Champions: 1970, 1998, 2005, 2010

Current standings

2016–17 Pro12
	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Tries for	Tries against	Try bonus	Losing bonus	Points
1	Munster	10	8	0	2	267	129	+138	34	15	4	1	37
2	Leinster	10	8	0	2	264	183	+81	34	24	4	1	37
2	Ospreys	10	7	0	3	315	167	+148	45	21	7	1	36
4	Scarlets	10	7	0	3	222	174	+48	28	19	4	0	32
5	Ulster	9	6	0	3	192	146	+46	25	18	2	2	28
6	Glasgow Warriors	10	5	0	5	223	199	+24	30	24	4	3	27
7	Cardiff Blues	10	5	0	5	219	248	−29	25	30	1	1	22
8	Connacht	9	4	0	5	176	190	−14	22	23	3	1	20
9	Newport Gwent Dragons	10	3	0	7	170	237	−67	19	29	1	2	15
10	Edinburgh	10	3	0	7	213	236	−23	28	28	1	1	14
11	Zebre	8	1	0	7	118	253	−135	12	35	0	4	8
12	Benetton Treviso	10	1	0	9	125	342	−217	14	48	1	1	6
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:[6] number of matches won; the difference between points for and points against; the number of tries scored; the most points scored; the difference between tries for and tries against; the fewest number of red cards received; the fewest number of yellow cards received.
Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places, and earn a place in the 2017–18 European Rugby Champions Cup. Blue background indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earn a place in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Season records

Pro12 League

European Challenge Cup / Rugby Challenge Cup

Heineken Cup / Rugby Champions Cup

Stadium

The team play at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo in Treviso, 4 km northwest of the city centre. The stadium has a capacity of 6,700.

Staff and Coaching Team

• Director of Rugby – Marius Goosen
• Head Coach – Kieran Crowley
• Assistant Coach – Fabio Ongaro
• Assistant Coach – Ezio Galon
• Assistant Coach – Marco Bortolami
• Team Manager – Enrico Ceccato
• Trainer – Fabio Benvenuto – Gabriele Rossi

Current squad

2016-17 Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Luca Bigi Hooker Italy Ornel Gega Hooker Italy Davide Giazzon Hooker Italy Roberto Santamaria Hooker Italy Alberto De Marchi Prop Italy Simone Ferrari Prop Italy Filippo Filippetto Prop Italy Tiziano Pasquali Prop Italy Nicola Quaglio Prop Italy Cherif Traorè Prop Italy Federico Zani Prop Italy Matteo Zanusso Prop Italy Marco Fuser Lock Italy Filippo Gerosa Lock Italy Jean-François Montauriol Lock Italy Filo Paulo Lock Samoa Robert Barbieri Flanker Italy Dean Budd* Flanker New Zealand Marco Lazzaroni Flanker Italy Francesco Minto Flanker Italy Guglielmo Zanini Flanker Italy Marco Barbini Number 8 Italy Braam Steyn Number 8 Italy Alessandro Zanni Number 8 Italy

Player Position Union Giorgio Bronzini Scrum-half Italy Edoardo Gori Scrum-half Italy Tito Tebaldi Scrum-half Italy Tommaso Allan Fly-half Italy Marty Banks Fly-half New Zealand Ian McKinley* Fly-half Ireland Tommaso Benvenuti Centre Italy Tommaso Iannone Centre Italy Luca Morisi Centre Italy Andrea Pratichetti Centre Italy Alberto Sgarbi Centre Italy Andrea Buondonno Wing Italy Angelo Esposito Wing Italy Luca Sperandio Wing Italy Michael Tagicakibau Wing Fiji Jayden Hayward Fullback New Zealand Luke McLean Fullback Italy David Odiete Fullback Italy

• Players in bold capped internationally.
• Players qualified to play for Italy on residency or dual nationality. *
• Players and their allocated positions from the Benetton Rugby Treviso Website.^[7]

Additional Players Squad

Additional players from National Championship of Excellence^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Michael Van Vuuren (Mogliano) Lock Italy Federico Conforti (Petrarca) Flanker Italy Filippo Ferrarini (Mogliano) Flanker Italy Enrico Francescato (Petrarca) Scrum-half Italy

Selected former players

Italian players

Former players who have played for Treviso and have caps for Italy

Overseas players

Former players who have played for Treviso and have caps for your Representative Team

Franchise Area

Treviso is an executive member of the historical territorial representative of I Dogi (the Doges) that have recovered in 2015 and represents several clubs in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.^[9] Currently no provision is made for a selection Seniors who take the field with the shirt of the Doges: to represent its brand and colors are at this stage the representative under-14, under-16 male and female under-18 male and female managed by Veneto Regional Committee. May occur during the right conditions, there is still the desire to be able to field, even if it is currently not a priority.^[10]

See also

• Pro12
• Heineken Cup
• European Challenge Cup
• National Championship of Excellence
• Coppa Italia

References

External links

• Official site

Rugby union in Italy
Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR)
National teams	Women's Italy 7's Men's Italy A 7's U-20 U-18
League competitions	Men's Pro12 Excellence Serie A Serie B Serie C
Cup competitions	Men's European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Challenge Cup Qualifying Competition Excellence Trophy
Related articles	World Cup Six Nations International players Trofeo Garibaldi 1995–97 FIRA Trophy Aironi (disbanded) Zebre
Clubs Players Coaches Referees Venues