Petrarca Rugby is a professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club from

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, currently competing in the top tier of the Italian rugby union, the Serie A Elite. Founded in 1947, the team is the rugby union branch of the Unione Sportiva Petrarca, an omnisport club that includes also

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. They have won 15 league titles, 11 of them between 1969–70 and 1986–87 seasons; their most recent successes in the Italian championship came 24 years after their latest feat, at the end of the 2010–11 season, and in recent years appearing in four straight finals 3 against rugby delta Rovigo (2020-21,2021-22,2022-23)and 1 against rugby viadana (2023-24) and winning two (2021-22 and 2023-24). Petrarca is the tied 2nd most successful side in the Italian championship with Benetton rugby (15 time champions) and behind amatori rugby Milano (18 time champions)

Honours

* Italian championship ** Champions (15): 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 2010–11, 2017–18, 2021−22, 2023−24 ** ''Runners-up (3)'': 1997–98, 1998–99,2020−21,2022-23 * Coppa Italia/Excellence Trophy ** Champions (4): 1981–82, 2000–01, 2021−22, 2022−23 ** ''Runners-up (4)'': 1980–81, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2015–16

Current squad

The squad for the Serie A Elite season is:

Selected former players

Italian players

Former players who have played for Petrarca and have caps for Italy: * Giuseppe Artuso * Enrico Bacchin * Mattia Bellini * Alberto Benettin * Mauro Bergamasco * Mirco Bergamasco * Lucio Boccaletto *

Marco Bortolami Marco Bortolami (; born 12 June 1980) is a rugby union coach and retired Italy, Italian international player, whose career includes experience playing in the national top-level Italian (Petrarca Padova), French (RC Narbonne), and English (Glouces ...

* Alberto Chillon * Dario Chistolini * Oscar Collodo * Manuel Dallan * Renato de Bernardo *

Paul Derbyshire Paul Derbyshire (born 3 November 1986) is an Italian rugby union player. Derbyshire, who is a flanker, plays club rugby for Mogliano in Top12. Derbyshire joined Benetton Treviso from Petrarca in June 2010 for their first season in the Cel ...

* Angelo Esposito * Piergianni Farina * Roberto Favaro * Antonio Galeazzo * Mauro Gardin * Guglielmo Geremia * Leonardo Ghiraldini *

Marzio Innocenti Marzio Innocenti (born 4 September 1958, in Livorno) is a former Italians, Italian rugby union player and coach and current sports director. He played as a Flanker (rugby union), flanker and a Number eight (rugby union), number 8. Since 21 March 2 ...

* Andrea Marcato * Luca Martin * Fulvio Lorigiola * Luigi Luise * Luciano Orquera * Mario Piovan * Pasquale Presutti *

Michele Rizzo Michele Rizzo (born 16 September 1982) is a retired Italy, Italian former rugby union player. His preferred position was Rugby union positions#1. Loosehead prop & 3. Tighthead prop, prop but he can also play as a Rugby union positions#2. Hooker, ...

* Roberto Saetti * Alberto Sgarbi *

Samuela Vunisa Samuela Vunisa (born 19 August 1988) is a Fijian-born Italian professional rugby union player who currently plays for Italian Serie A Elite team Rangers Vicenza. Powerful and athletic, Vunisa is an option across the back-row due to the combina ...

Overseas players

Former players who have played for Petrarca and have caps for their respective country: * Mark Bartholomeusz *

David Campese David Ian Campese, AM (; born 21 October 1962), also known as Campo, is a former Australian rugby union player (1982–1996), who was capped by the Wallabies 101 times, and played 85 Tests at wing and 16 at fullback. He retired in 1996 and ...

* David Knox * Brendan Williams * Rodrigo Fernández * Sisa Koyamaibole *

Nicky Little Nicky Tyrone Little (born 13 September 1976) is a former professional rugby union footballer. He plays at fly-half. He is a nephew of All Blacks centre Walter Little, but represents Fiji at international level. Career He has scored 652 point ...

* Guy Pardiès * Stuart Grimes * Theuns Stofberg *

Rudolf Straeuli Rudolf August Wilkens Straeuli (born 20 August 1963) is a South African rugby union administrator, and a former player and coach. He is currently the CEO of the Lions Rugby Company. He played in the positions of flanker and Number 8, making 1 ...

* Cameron Oliver * Kobus Wiese * James Faiva * Richie Collins

Statistics

European Challenge Cup (1996–2014)

European Shield

Heineken Cup (1995–2014)

References

External links

* {{Rugby union in Italy Rugby union teams in Italy Sport in Padua Rugby clubs established in 1947 1947 establishments in Italy