L'Aquila Rugby 1936 was an

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

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 based in

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...

, the capital of

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

. The official colours of the club were black and green, the colours of the city of

. The club went into liquidation and disbanded in 2018.

History

The roots of L'Aquila Rugby date back to the 1930s when, between 1936 and 1942, L'Aquila took part in tournaments organized by the Comandi Federali della GIL. It reached its peak in the 1937–38 season when, after Tommaso Fattori, a legendary figure for the history of the club (the stadium of L'Aquila,

Stadio Tommaso Fattori Stadio Tommaso Fattori is a multi-use stadium in L'Aquila, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football and rugby union matches and the home of L'Aquila Calcio and L'Aquila Rugby. Inaugurated in 1933, the stadium holds 10,0 ...

is named after him), joined the team, the club won the local tournament qualifying for the final one, where it finished the season fourth out of 54 participants. It first played in a championship in 1948. In 1949–50 L'Aquila participated in the Serie B and were in contention for promotion to Serie A up to the final game of the season, Genoa eventually winning out. The following year the team won promotion to the Serie A then the highest division in Italy. In 1958–59 they were losing finalists in the Serie A Grand Final. In 1963–64 they were relegated to Serie B, but returned to Serie A the following year. They won their first title in 1967 defeating Fiamme Oro Padova 6 to 0. Two years later they won their second title after having won 18 games out of 22 without losing a match. The 1970s weren't a good decade for the Aquilani, as they won only one Italian Cup in 1973. In the 1980s they won two more titles in 1981 (league and cup double) and 1982. These were the years of Massimo Mascioletti (54 caps with the Italian national team),

Serafino Ghizzoni Serafino Ghizzoni (born 16 October 1954 in L'Aquila, Italy) is a former Italian international rugby union footballer, who played the 1st Rugby World Cup in 1987. Biography Born and raised in L'Aquila, Ghizzoni started playing rugby at L'Aquila R ...

(60 caps) and Luigi Troiani (47 caps). Then another period of not brilliant results followed, before they could celebrate their fifth title in 1993–94 after having defeated Milan 23–14 in the historical final in Padua. In 1999–2000 L'Aquila Rugby played another final for the Italian title, losing 35–17 against Roma in the match played in the Flaminio stadium. In 2001–02 L'Aquila were part of the newly formed Super 10 (now

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 ...

). In 2009–10 L'Aquila were promoted back to the National Championship of Excellence, finishing 8th in this season.

Current squad

''2014-15:'' * International are capped in Bold

Honours

* National Championship of Excellence: ** Champions: 1967, 1969, 1981, 1982, 1994 *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: ** Champions: 1973, 1981 * Reserves Championship: ** Champions: 1967, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1985 * Under 19/20: ** Champions: 1950, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1979, 1981, 1995, 1997 * Under 17/18: ** Champions: 1977 * Coppa Primavera Under 17: ** Champions: 1967 * Under 15/16: ** Champions: 1977

Notable players

* Carlo Festuccia (

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 ...

) * Andrea Lo Cicero (

) * Andrea Masi (

) * Gert Peens (

) * Luigi Troiani (

) * Maurizio Zaffiri (

) * Simon Picone (

) * Rob Louw (

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) *

Joel Stransky Joel Theodore Stransky (born 16 July 1967) is a South African former rugby union player. A fly-half, he is known for scoring all of South Africa's points, including the winning drop goal, against New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final ...

(

) * Mike Brewer (

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) *

Frano Botica Frano Michael Botica (born 3 August 1963) is a New Zealand-Croatian rugby union and rugby league coach and former player in both codes, who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the head coach of the Philippines sevens team. He represented New ...

(

) * Loki Crichton (

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

)

Statistics

European Challenge Cup

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:L'aquila Rugby Rugby union teams in Italy L'Aquila Sport in Abruzzo