Gonzalo Quesada calls 39
Italrugby: 39 summoned to the Summer Tour
Gonzalo Quesada, technical commissioner of the Italian men’s national rugby team, has dirmato a pre-list of thirty-nine athletes for the gathering scheduled in L’Aquila from June 19 to 22, in preparation for the 2024 summer tour that will see Italy engaged in a triptych of test matches in the South Pacific and Japan in July. This will be the first overseas tour since 2018, when Italy faced just the XV of the Rising Sun on two occasions.
Of the thirty-nine athletes pre-selected by the Azzurri staff, thirty-three will meet in L’Aquila from June 19 to 22 to prepare for the tour, bringing Italrugby back to training in the Abruzzo capital nine years after the 2015 English Rugby World Cup build-up held on the very lawn of the “Fattori”.
Three intense days that the’Italrugby will live in Abruzzo, where it will not miss a moment of meeting with the’passionate local public thanks to the’open training, with free admission, scheduled Friday’June 21 from 10 a.m.
Eight overall rookies on the list of thirty-nine preconvenors, five first-time Azzurri: they are Zebre Parma pylon Muhamed Hasa and fellow front row and hooker of the ducal franchise Giampietro Ribaldi, Castres’ Italian-French hooker Loris Zarantonello, Oyonnax flanker David Odiase – among the protagonists of the Italian Under-20 2023 – and Bath Rugby fullback Matt Gallagher, who from next season will go to reinforce the Benetton Rugby three-quarter line.
First meeting with Italrugby for Giulio Marini: a third line forward for Mogliano, he had been summoned at the beginning of the year for the training sessions scheduled in Verona but an injury prevented him from taking part in the preparation for the Six Nations.
Also rejoining the provisional roster are rookies Mey and Montemauri – already present in the January gathering in Verona – and Jacopo Trulla, who for the first time will work with the staff led by Gonzalo Quesada after two years away from the international scene.
Unavailable due to injury are three-quarter Mori and Pani – winner of the Best Goal of the Six Nations 2024 – and second line Lamb.
The national team will move to Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday, June 22, which will be the Azzurri’s base for the first part of the Summer Tour. After the first two scheduled test-matches against Samoa in Apia and Tonga in Nuku’Alofa on July 5 and July 12, respectively, the Azzurri will fly from Auckland to Tokyo on July 14 where they will begin the march towards the third and final fixture in Sapporo on Sunday, July 21, against hosts Japan.
“We have chosen a quality, strong and very balanced roster for this Summer Tour,” Quesada stressed. We know the value of our opponents, especially when they play at home: these will not be easy matches. This tour comes at the end of a very long season that still sees Benetton Rugby involved in the playoffs in the URC and the TOP14 with Capuozzo and Paolo Garbisi playing with their clubs. The available roster will reflect the same principle of the Six Nations where within a proven and experienced group some young players will be included – as in the recent past have been for example Vintcent, Izekor or Lynagh – with the double objective of being viewed for the present and for the future".
" It will be a great opportunity for this group to have an important collective experience – the second of this new cycle – from a human and technical point of view and that fits into the growth path we have set for ourselves. I am confident that all members of the group will use the context to develop our character, strengthen our identity as a team and go on to improve our rugby specifically in areas where we know we can do even better" concluded the Azzurri coach.
This is the schedule of Italy’s matches in the 2024 Summer Tour:
Samoa v Italy 05.07.24, Apia
Tonga v Italy 12.07.24, Nuku’Alofa
Japan v Italy 21.07.24, Sapporo
This is the roster of thirty-nine preconvened athletes:
Piloni
Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 53 caps)
Danilo FISCHETTI (Zebre Parma, 41 caps)
Muhamed HASA (Zebre Parma, rookie)
Marco RICCIONI (Saracens, 26 caps)
Mirco SPAGNOLO (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps)
Giosuè ZILOCCHI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
Talloners
Gianmarco LUCCHESI (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps)
Giacomo NICOTERA (Benetton Rugby, 23 caps)
Giampiero RIBALDI (Zebre Parma, rookie)
Loriz ZARANTONELLO (Castres, rookie)
Second Lines
Niccolò CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 41 caps)
Riccardo FAVRETTO (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)
Edoardo IACHIZZI (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)
Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 54 caps)
Andrea ZAMBONIN (Zebre Parma, 7 caps)
Third Lines
Lorenzo CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
Alessandro IZEKOR (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
Michele LAMARO (Benetton Rugby, 38 caps)
Giulio MARINI (Mogliano Veneto Rugby, rookie)
Sebastian NEGRI (Benetton Rugby, 55 caps)
David ODIASE (Oyonnax, rookie)
Ross VINTCENT (Exeter, 4 caps)
Manuel ZULIANI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
Medians of Scrum
Alessandro GARBISI (Benetton Rugby 8 caps)
Martin PAGE-RELO (Lyon, 8 caps)
Stephen VARNEY (Gloucester, 29 caps)
Opening Medians
Paul GARBISI (Toulon, 36 caps)
Leonardo MARIN (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps)
Giovanni MONTEMAURI (Zebre Parma, rookie)
Centers
Juan Ignacio BREX (Benetton Rugby, 35 caps)
Tommaso MENONCELLO (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
Francois MEY (Clermont, rookie)
Marco ZANON (Benetton Rugby, 14 caps)
Ali/Estremes
Ange CAPUOZZO (Stade Toulousain, 19 caps)
Matt GALLAGHER (Bath Rugby, rookie)
Simone GESI (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)
Monty IOANE (Lyon 30 caps)
Louis LYNAGH (Harlequins, 2 caps)
Jacopo TRULLA (Zebre Parma, 8 caps)
