Rugby union in Italy

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Rugby union in Italy is governed by the Italian Rugby Federation. Rugby was introduced into Italy in the early 1900s. It is also known as pallovale or palla ovale ("oval ball") within Italy. Two Italian professional teams (Treviso and Zebre) compete in United Rugby Championship, a league that also includes sides from Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. One of the teams is guaranteed a place in the European Rugby Champions Cup; the other normally plays in the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The Top12 is the main national club competition. Four Italian clubs from the national championship compete in a qualifying tournament that awards two places in the Challenge Cup. Italy competes in the Six Nations Championship and Rugby World Cup, and is classified as a tier one nation by World Rugby (formerly the International Rugby Board).

The governing body of Italian rugby union is the Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR). An original organisational committee was established in 1911, although it was in 1928 when the body became the FIR, and in 1987, it joined the International Rugby Board. In 1934 the FIR became a founding member of the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur.

There are 1,024 rugby clubs within Italy. These clubs support 153,173 registered male players, as well as 8,118 registered female players. Many teams are either from Veneto or Lombardy in the north of Italy as this area has the highest rugby popularity however the sport has achieved national presence as it is played and followed throughout the country. Rugby is now estimated to be the third most popular team sport in Italy behind football and basketball. Italian players also play for other European rugby clubs, such as those in the Aviva Premiership.

In the 1980s, a peculiar set of economic circumstances arose, which helped bolster the game further. In an effort to promote the game, sinking money into rugby became virtually tax free, and large amounts of sponsorship money went into the game, from companies as large as Benetton which set up their own club sides.

The World Rugby Nations Cup in Romania and World Rugby Tbilisi Cup in Georgia are tournaments involving the host teams and usually Tier One teams like Argentina XV and Emerging Italy and Tier Two teams like Portugal and Russia. Nations Cup was first held in 2006.

Two Italian sides, Treviso and Aironi were admitted to the Pro12 on 8 March 2009, and started playing in the league from the 2010/11 season. The announcement by Celtic rugby followed a long period of negotiations and planning, starting with a tentative agreement in 2008 to admit two Italian sides. During 2009 the FIR organised a competition to choose which two sides would win the two places. This resulted in a team based in Rome winning one of the two places, despite the Italian rugby heartland being in the north. This decision was overturned after questions about the viability of the new franchise, with Treviso taking its place. Only after repeated assurances by the FIR of the ability of the two new sides to contribute financially to the league did Celtic rugby finally admit the two teams. For the 2012/13 season, Aironi left the Pro12, and was replaced by Zebre, a team based in Parma.

Italy fielded teams in the European knock out competition, the Heineken Cup, from its inception in 1995–96 through its final season of 2013–14. The Heineken Cup was an annual rugby union competition involving leading clubs, regional and provincial teams from the rest of the Six Nations: England, France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Through the 2009–10 season, Italy usually had two to three clubs in the Heineken Cup. Starting with the 2010–11 season, Italy's two Pro12 sides automatically entered the Heineken Cup. Starting in 2014–15, the Heineken Cup has been replaced by the European Rugby Champions Cup. Italy is guaranteed one place in the Champions Cup; the Italian Pro12 team that finishes higher on the previous season's Pro12 table automatically qualifies. The second Italian Pro12 club can earn a Champions Cup place if it is one of the three highest placed teams apart from the top team of each Pro12 country (Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales). Beginning with the 2014–15 season, the second Italian club has another path to the following season's Champions Cup—if it is one of the top two Pro12 teams that does not qualify for the Champions Cup, it will enter a play off for a Champions Cup place that also involves the seventh place sides from the English Premiership and Top 14.

The European Challenge Cup in rugby union, known as the Parker Pen Shield from 2001 to 2003, Parker Pen Challenge Cup from 2003 to 2005, and the Amlin Challenge Cup from 2009 to 2014, was the sister competition to the Heineken Cup. It was competed for by teams from England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Romania (plus, in some years, Portugal and Spain) on a knock out basis. Italy entered 4 clubs: those finishing 1st to 4th in the Eccellenza. Clubs had previously competed in the European Shield, though that particular competition was restructured in 2005. Starting in the 2014–15 season, the original Challenge Cup was replaced by the European Rugby Challenge Cup. Any Italian Pro12 team that does not qualify for the Champions Cup plays in the current Challenge Cup.

The introduction of the new European club competition structure for 2014–15 will see the creation of a completely new third tier competition, the Qualifying Competition. The structure has not yet been announced, but it will involve the top four teams from the Eccellenza plus club sides from second tier European rugby nations. These sides will compete for two places in the Challenge Cup.