Italrugby honors Sergio Parisse on special occasion
Rugby Italy honors Sergio Parisse
Sunday, Feb. 23, will be an important day for Italian rugby, not only because Gonzalo Quesada’s national team, fresh from its success against Wales, will take the field at the Olympic Stadium in Rome against the fearsome France led on the field by Antoine Dupont, but also because the FIR has decided, for that very date, to create a series of side events dedicated to one of the symbols of the oval ball in Italy and the world, Sergio Parisse.
The historic Azzurri captain, active in the national team between 2002 and 2019, collected 142 caps with the Azzurri, taking the field in no less than five editions of the World Cup, in Australia in 2003, France in 2007, New Zealand in 2011, England in 2015 and Japan in 2019.
The top brass of Azzurri rugby had promised to dedicate a special day to Parisse but the commitments of the former third line, now on the Toulon coaching staff, had not allowed him to participate in the special ceremony of awarding special caps to Azzurri Centurions, held in 2022 at the Olympic Stadium.
"Sergio’s career canò be defined only as extraordinary – said Andrea Duodo, president of the Italian Rugby Federation.”
By duration, by the quality of the game he was able to express until the day of his own retirement, by the’commitment that in every single minute he put in the service of the Azzurri jersey and the movement".
"There could not be a better moment than the match on February 23 against France, which unites the two rugby worlds that have characterized his sporting career, to hand him the Centurion cap and, above all, to thank him, we along with our cousins and friends arriving from the’other side of the Alps, for the wonderful rugby he has given us for almost twenty years’
With 142 caps, Parisse è the player who has collected, as of February 2025, the most national team appearances. The other Azzurri centurions are Martin Castrogiovanni (119 caps between 2002 and 2016), Alessandro Zanni (also stopped at 119, between 2005 and 2020), Marco Bortolami (112 between 2001 and 2015), Leonardo Ghiraldini (107 between 2006 and 2020), Mauro Bergamasco (106 between 1998 and 2015), Andrea Lo Cicero (103 between 2000 and 2013) and Alessandro Troncon (102 between 1994 and 2007).
