Rugby Rovigo Delta

Rugby Rovigo Delta
Full name	Rugby Rovigo Delta S.r.l.
Union	Italian Rugby Federation
Founded	1935
Location	Rovigo, Italy
Ground	Stadio Mario Battaglini (Capacity: 5,500)
President	Francesco Zambelli
Coach	Davide Giazzon
Captain	Facundo Diederich Ferrario
League	Serie A Élite
1st kit	2nd kit
Official website
	www.rugbyrovigodelta.it

Rugby Rovigo Delta, formerly known until 2010 as Rugby Rovigo, is an Italian rugby union club currently competing in the Serie A Élite. They are based in Rovigo, in Veneto.

Overview

The club was founded in 1935 by medical student Dino Lanzoni, who discovered rugby at university in Padua.

They quickly became one of the strongest Italian sides and won 15 titles between 1951 and 2025. They have never been relegated from the top flight of Italian rugby union. They are the current Italian champion.

Former Rovigo players include Elio De Anna, Stefano Bettarello, Stefano Bordon, Alessandro Moscardi, Carlo Orlandi, Carlo Checchinato, Mirco Bergamasco, Manuel Contepomi, AJ Venter, Gert Smal, Viliami Ofahengaue and Naas Botha.

Honours

Italian championship
- Champions (15): 1950–51, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1975–76, 1978–79, 1987–88, 1989–90, 2015–16, 2020–21, 2022–23. 2024–25
- Runners-up (7): 1988–89, 1991–92, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2021−22
Coppa Italia/Excellence Trophy
- Champions (2): 2019–20, 2024–25
- Runners-up (3): 1997–98, 2005–06, 2013−14
Italian Super Cup:
- Champions (1):2025

Current squad

The Rovigo Delta senior squad for 2025–26 is:

Rovigo Delta squad
Props Nicola Bolognini Andrea Della Sala Emanuele Leccioli Nicola Pomaro Alessio Sanavia Entienne Swanepoel Antonio Tripodo Hookers Filippo Cadorini Lapo Frangini Enrico Giulian Locks Eliseo Fourcade Samuele Ortis Luca Ribbens^[1]^[2] Paolo Steolo	Back row Carlos Berlese Lautaro Casado Sandri* Lorenzo Ciampolini Duccio Cosi Rodolfo Malaspina Matteo Meggiato Riccardo Paganin Stefano Sironi Scrum-halves Juan Dee Oliver Andrea Visentin Fly-halves Federico Cantini Francesco Krsul Giovanni Sante Brandon Thomson	Centres Luca Belloni Lorenzo Elettri Facundo Diederich Ferrario(c) Ethan Fisher Rafael Andrès Lertora Castro Matteo Moscardi Wings Lorenzo Maria Bruno Paolo Uncini Flavio Pio Vaccari Fullbacks Alessandro Gesi

(c) denotes the team captain, Bold denotes internationally capped players. ^* denotes players qualified to play for Italy on residency or dual nationality. Players and their allocated positions from the Rovigo Delta website.^[3]^[4]

Selected former players

Italian players

Former players who have played for Rovigo and have caps for Italy:

Matías Agüero
Andrea Bacchetti
Mario Battaglini
Enzo Bellinazzo
Mirko Belloni
Arturo Bergamasco
Mirco Bergamasco
Ottorino Bettarello
Romano Bettarello
Stefano Bettarello
Flaviano Brizzante
Massimo Brunello
Stefano Bordon
Giancarlo Busson
Pablo Canavosio
Carlo Checchinato
David Dal Maso
Elio De Anna
Gianluca Faliva
Simone Favaro
Matteo Ferro
– Julian Gardner
Massimo Giovanelli
Andrea Lo Cicero
Tito Lupini
Giancarlo Malosti
Matteo Mazzantini
Alessandro Moscardi
Giancarlo Navarrini
Giacomo Nicotera
Carlo Orlandi
Alberto Osti
Antonio Pavanello
Gert Peens
Isidoro Quaglio
Nicola Quaglio
Graziano Ravanelli
Pietro Reale
Leonardo Sarto
Andrea Scanavacca
Fabrizio Sintich
Pietro Stievano
Iliesa Ratuva Tavuyara
Edgardo Venturi
Angelo Visentin
Narciso Zanella

Overseas players

Former players who have played for Rovigo and have caps for their respective country:

Peter FitzSimons
Viliami Ofahengaue
Alejandro Abadie
Lautaro Bazan Velez
Manuel Contepomi
Juan Cruz Legora
Leandro Lobrauco
Serafín Dengra
Juan Pablo Orlandi
– Christian Stewart
Akvsenti Giorgadze
Ilia Zedginidze
Gheorghe Gajion
Ron Cribb
Alexandru Penciu
Cristian Săuan
Nick Mallett
Stefan Basson
Schalk van der Merwe
Schalk Burger Sr.
Hendro Scholtz
Naas Botha
Gert Smal
AJ Venter
Silao Leaega
Elvis Seveali'i
Luke Gross
Bernard Thomas

Presidents^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Nicola Azzi Stefano Badocchi Carlo Bego Lorenzo (Renzo) Bullo Giancarlo Checchinato Lamberto Coltro Mosè De Stefani Bruno Granata	Davide (Dino) Lanzoni Ernesto Marsullo Ottorino Marzolla Giuseppe Merlin Adriano Pavan Lauro Pavanello Ercole Ponzetti Lino Rizzieri	Alessandro Sigolo Enrico Suriani Nino Suriani Ugo Taddeo Giuseppe Toffoli Susanna Vecchi Sergio Viscardini Francesco Zambelli (in office)

Bibliography

Gioli, Paolo (1976). Rugby come Rovigo: alè bersaglieri! (in Italian). Rovigo.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Ravagnani, Luciano; Colosetti, Gianni (1987). Una città in mischia - Mezzo secolo di rugby a Rovigo (in Italian). Rovigo: Istituto Padano di Arti Grafiche.
Ravagnani, Vason Andriolli Miotto (1979). Rugby Rovigo Capitale (in Italian). Rovigo: La Guida.
Zanirato, Caterina (2016). Il cuore sotto la maglia. Rugby Rovigo, ottant'anni di sogni da Lanzoni a Zambelli (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-99479-08-4.
Guerrini, Alberto; Nalio, Andrea (2025). La partita. La grande storia di Rovigo-Petrarca, il derby d'Italia del rugby (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-9278-437-6.
Guerrini, Alberto (2022). Li chiamarono Bersaglieri. I ragazzi che inventarono il rugby a Rovigo e dintorni (in Italian). ISBN 88-6341-273-1.

References

^ Worthless circular redirect
^ "Ribbens". Rugby Rovigo Delta (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-02-20.
^ "First XV". Rurby Rovigo Delta.
^ "DEFINITI I PERCORSI INDIVIDUALI DEGLI ATLETI DELL'ACCADEMIA DEL BENETTON RUGBY". Benetton Rugby (in Italian). 20 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
^ Rugby Rovigo Delta archives
^ Guerrini, 2022
^ Zanirato, 2016
^ Ravagnani-Colosetti, 1987

External links

Official website

[1] Worthless circular redirect

[2] "Ribbens". Rugby Rovigo Delta (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-02-20.

[Archivi_La_Squadra-3] "First XV". Rurby Rovigo Delta.

[Academy_loans-4] "DEFINITI I PERCORSI INDIVIDUALI DEGLI ATLETI DELL'ACCADEMIA DEL BENETTON RUGBY". Benetton Rugby (in Italian). 20 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.

[5] Rugby Rovigo Delta archives

[6] Guerrini, 2022

[7] Zanirato, 2016

[8] Ravagnani-Colosetti, 1987

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Serie A Elite
2025–26 Teams	Biella Colorno Fiamme Oro Lyons Piacenza Mogliano Petrarca Rangers Vicenza Rovigo Delta Valorugby Emilia Viadana
Serie A (1929–1960)	1929 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60
Eccellenza (1960–1965)	1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65
Serie A (1965–1986)	1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86
Serie A1 (1986–2001)	1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01
Super 10 (2001–2010)	2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10
Eccellenza (2010–2018)	2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18
Top12 (2018–2020)	2018–19 2019–20
Top10 (2020–2023)	2020–21 2021–22 2022–23
Serie A Élite (2023–present)	2023–24 2024–25