Marco Bortolami (; born 12 June 1980) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

coach and retired

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

international player, whose career includes experience playing in the national top-level Italian (

Petrarca Padova Petrarca Rugby is a rugby union club from Padua, Italy, currently competing in the top tier of the Italian rugby union, the Top10. Founded in 1947, the team is the rugby union branch of the Unione Sportiva Petrarca, an omnisport club that inclu ...

), French (

RC Narbonne R&C, RC, R/C, Rc, or rc may refer to: Science and technology Computing * rc, the default Command line interface in Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs * .rc (for "run commands"), a filename extension for configuration files in UNIX-like ...

), and English (

Gloucester Rugby Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby, as well as in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The club was formed i ...

) championships, before joining the then recently-born

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

(with

Aironi Rugby Aironi Rugby (, " herons") was an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the Pro12 and the Heineken Cup, representing the Italian regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. It lost its status as a regional side at the end of the 2011� ...

and then

Zebre Zebre Parma (, meaning "Zebras") are an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the United Rugby Championship and EPCR competitions from the 2012–13 season. They are based in Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. They are operated by the ...

). Praised for his leadership skills, he captained all the teams he played for at professional level. At international level, he also captained the Italian side since 2002 till the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

, before being replaced in the permanent role by

Sergio Parisse Sergio Francesco Parisse (; born 12 September 1983) is an Italian rugby union player. He currently plays for French club Toulon and played for the Italy national team from 2002 until the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Parisse is Italy's most-capped player ...

. He currently serves as head coach for

Benetton Rugby Benetton Rugby, also known as Benetton Treviso ( or ), is an Italian professional rugby union team based in Treviso, Veneto competing in the United Rugby Championship, the European Rugby Challenge Cup and European Champions Cup. Treviso rugby t ...

in the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

Club career

Bortolami began his playing career with the team of his native

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, making his debut as a second row aged only 18. After a two-year spell with

in the French

Top14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

, in the summer of 2006 he joined

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

when he was considered by many to be one of the best players in the world around the time, being selected into the starting team for their first game of the season and immediately taking the role of captain. At Gloucester he made up a formidable partnership with Alex Brown and shared captaincy with

Peter Buxton Peter Buxton (born 21 August 1978, in Cheltenham) is a former rugby union footballer who played flanker for Gloucester Rugby. Buxton signed for Gloucester Rugby from Newport RFC in 2002. He has gone on to make many appearances for the club ...

. Due to injuries and his

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

commitments, the 2007–08 season ended up not being as consistent in performance and he lost the Italian captaincy to Italian No. 8

, but continued to put in powerful performances for

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. His outstanding leadership qualities meant he retained captaincy. He made 23 appearances for

in 2008–09. In 2010 he returned to Italy signing for the new Aironi team which started to compete in the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, 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 part ...

from the 2010–11 season. After Aironi folded due to financial problems, Bortolami signed for the new franchise

in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

for the 2012/13 season. On 7 May 2016, Bortolami announced his retirement from professional rugby with immediate effect.

International career

Bortolami was made captain of Italy's Under-21 side, before making his international debut at elite level against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

in June, 2001, when he was just 20. At the age of 22, Bortolami was made Italy's youngest ever captain by then coach John Kirwan. In his first-ever

start, against

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, he suffered an injury and missed the decisive group-stage match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, which saw the Azzurri eliminated from the competition. After impressing in the

2004 Six Nations Championship The 2004 Six Nations Championship was the fifth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship to be held since the competition expanded in 2000 to include Italy. Overall, this was the 110th series of the international championship. Match wi ...

, he was once awarded the full captaincy for the 2005 Summer tour of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

by coach

Pierre Berbizier Pierre Berbizier (born 17 June 1958) is a French former rugby union footballer and a current coach. His usual position was at scrum-half. He played 56 times for France. Biography Berbizier was born in Saint-Gaudens. He made his international deb ...

. After this tour he joined French club

Narbonne Narbonne (, also , ; oc, Narbona ; la, Narbo ; Late Latin:) is a commune in France, commune in Southern France in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. It lies from Paris in the Aude Departments of Franc ...

. In the

2007 Six Nations Championship The 2007 Six Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the international championship. Fifteen mat ...

, Bortolami led Italy to their first away win in the competition against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often conside ...

, which was also the first time Italy have won more than one game in a single

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

. At the

, he led the Italian team to a decisive final group-stage match against

, again missing access to the knock-out stage. With the

, under new coach

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 the ...

, Bortolami was replaced as Italian skipper by

. Bortolami suffered an injury against Australia in June 2012, but in May 2013 it was announced that he would be returning to the international stage.

Coaching career

Bortolami left

at the end of the

2015/16 season, and became Assistant Coach at Benetton Treviso from the start of the 2016/17 season.

Other information

In an interview in 2006, Bortolami stated that he wishes to become a mechanic for

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

after he retires from professional rugby, using the mechanical skills that he picked up in college. Shortly after the interview had taken place, he received a letter from Ferrari offering him a position as soon as he completed his rugby career. Something must be changed since then because now Bortolami moved into coaching the forwards for Benetton Treviso in Italy, after his last match on 7 May 2016. Although he has never been considered a violent player, his rough and direct playing style and his sometimes conflictual approach with the referees have led Bortolami to collect seven yellow cards in his long international career, surpassed in this unenviable ranking only by the Australian Michael Hooper and the Georgian Viktor Kolelishvili, both with eight.

References

External links

Zebre Profile

Gloucester Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bortolami, Marco 1980 births Italian rugby union coaches Italian rugby union players Living people Sportspeople from Padua Rugby union locks Aironi players Gloucester Rugby players Italy international rugby union players Petrarca Rugby players Zebre Parma players Italian expatriate rugby union players Italian expatriate sportspeople in France Italian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate rugby union players in France Expatriate rugby union players in England