R.C. I Medicei is an Italian

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 currently competing in the

Top12 The Top10, known as the Peroni Top10 for sponsorship reasons, and formerly Top 12, is Italy's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The Top 10 is run by Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) and is contested by 10 teams as of the 2 ...

. They are based in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, in

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

. They were founded in 2015.

History

Rugby arrived in Tuscany with university students in 1931, with a team called GUF Firenze being founded. and for most of the pre-war period played in the National Division, and after the war were promoted to the then top level of Italian rugby becoming CUS Firenze, continuing to play in the upper division until 1983-84. CUS Firenze continued as a team until 2007 when its sporting title was taken over by Firenze 1931, which retained the colours and field of the previous club and in 2010 merged with Rugby Firenze 1981. On June 25, 2015 the foundation of the RC I Medicei was announced at a press conference held at the Padovani sports centre. The new club was born from the merger by incorporation of the ex-franchises of I Cavalieri di Prato, who only two seasons before, in the

2012-13 season, had lost the final of the championship against

Mogliano Mogliano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about south of Ancona and about south of Macerata. Mogliano rises on a hill at 313 m. on the sea level and halfway between the Sibillini ...

, but had subsequently had faced a financial crisis that led the team to end the 2014-15 tournament in last place with no wins. The I Medicei team took the Serie A sports title from which the team started under the technical guidance of Pasquale Presutti, who had previously played and coached Petrarca and Fiamme Oro and played for

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 ...

in the 1970s. The debut tournament of the new club, in Serie A 2015-16, saw the Medici finish second in their group in the first phase and fourth in the following promotion pool. It was in the following tournament that the team managed to improve, repeating second place in the first phase but winning its own pool promotion in front of a top-flight of the

competition. Then in the semifinal the Medici defeated Verona and played L'Aquila in the final, winning in the match for the title in Parma for 38-14. They were thus promoted to the

, 33 years after the last presence of Florence side in the top division.

Current squad

The I Medicei squad for the 2019–20 season is:

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2020 Rugby union teams in Italy Rugby clubs established in 2015 2015 establishments in Italy Sport in Florence