Antonio Pavanello (; born 13 October 1982) is an Italian former

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 ...

player. His preferred position was in the Second Row although he could also play equally well in the back row. He played for Benetton Treviso in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

competition and the European

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

. From 2015 Pavanello is named Director of Rugby for Benetton Treviso.

Club career

He began his career playing since youth level for

Rugby Rovigo Rugby Rovigo Delta, formerly known until 2010 as Rugby Rovigo, is an Italian rugby union club currently competing in the Top10 (rugby union), Serie A Élite. They are based in Rovigo, in Veneto. Overview The club was founded in 1935 by medical ...

, making his first appearance in the Italian first division in 2002, aged 19. After five seasons at Rovigo, in 2005 he then transferred to Benetton Treviso, the main club of nearby city

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

. Starting from the 2009–10 season, he was also made club captain in place of Benjamin De Jager; Pavanello has consequently held the honour of being both the last captain of Treviso competing in the Italian first division (2009–10) and leading his team into their first ever match for the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...

tournament (2010–11), a home game in which they defeated the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

National team

While playing for youth and senior teams of Rugby Rovigo, he made a good enough impression to be selected for Italy at Under 19, Under 21 and 'A' levels. During his time in Treviso he has been capped five times by the

Italy national rugby union team The Italy national rugby union team represents the Italian Rugby Federation in men's international rugby union. The team is known as ''gli Azzurri'' (the light-blues). Savoy blue is the common colour of the national teams representing Italy, as ...

until 2007, playing 11 minutes against

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and 29 minutes against

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in 2005. He gained his third cap against Argentina in 2007 playing 6 minutes as a replacement. Pavanello was then basically dropped from the Italian main team for the whole tenure of

Nick Mallett Nicholas Vivian Haward Mallett (born 30 October 1956) is a former South African rugby union player who played for the Springboks, South Africa's national rugby union team, in 1984. He also coached the Springboks between 1997 and 2000 and was th ...

as head-coach (2007–11): though formally in the list of players eligible for taking the pitch in the

2010 Six Nations Championship The 2010 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2010 RBS 6 Nations due to sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 11th series of the Six Nations Championship and the 116th international championship, an annual rugby union competition b ...

, he only played in three test matches. Despite good efforts with the Italian 'A' team at the 2011

Churchill Cup The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada national rugby union team, Canada, England Saxons, England, the United States national rugby union te ...

, he was not selected for the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

in New Zealand; his drop caused some criticism since the Italian team had poorly performed at line-out at the

2011 Six Nations Championship The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 12th series of the Six Nations Championship, and the 117th edition of the international championship. The annual rugby uni ...

, whereas Treviso second-row led by Pavanello had proved consistent in this specific fundamental during the same season, but only fellow second-row teammate Corniel van Zyl was selected for the World Cup. In the wake of the

2012 Six Nations Championship The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was ...

, under newly installed head-coach Jacques Brunel, Pavanello regained his place in the national team. In the tournament, he had to skip the first game against France due to ban, before taking the pitch against England and Ireland; in the latter game, he suffered an injury which prevented him from finishing the tournament.

Personal life

Pavanello gained a master's degree in

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

from Iuav University of Venice in October 2008. He is married with a daughter born in 2011.

References

External links

Benetton Treviso Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavanello, Antonio 1982 births Italian rugby union players Living people Rugby union locks Sportspeople from Rovigo Italy international rugby union players Benetton Rugby players Rugby union players from Veneto Rugby Rovigo Delta players