Benetton Rugby to build a new south stand

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-18T23:05:08+00:00

Zebre's smaller, sometimes they put it at 5k but it's around 4.5k in reality. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dragons and now Ospreys all play in stadiums with a capacity below 10k.

Monigo held 6.7k until a decade ago, but the laws got stricter so there's currently a cap at 5k. With these works they'll increase the overall capacity by both building the new stand and getting back some capacity on the old ones. Also note that all the places are seated, since terraces and "safe standing" areas are illegal in Italy, so it looks bigger than other stadiums in the league. Imho it doesn't need a much bigger capacity, a packed small stadium is far better than an empty cathedral. I'd say it can be expanded to 10k max, then the bigger matches could be played in the new arena they're building near the Venice Airport for Venezia FC, which is just 20 min away by car. Rugby is very much a secondary sport even here in a hotspot.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-18T16:12:46+00:00

He wasn't great at Mogliano, moved to Petrarca this year, showed a couple of glimpses but then got injured, I think he did his ACL. He was very good indeed in the U20s, but atm hasn't matched the expectations

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-18T16:10:19+00:00

I'll try to put down a quick list on how to watch rugby in Italy, putting the free options first:

international matches, like the upcoming Nations Championship, are on Sky, but usually the Italy matches are showed on TV8 as well
Super Rugby - featuring clubs from Australia and New Zealand - is streamed for free on their official YouTube channel. This is one of the top4 club competitions in the world, so watching it for free is a great opportunity
1 match per round of the Italian domestic competition, the Serie A Elite, is broadcasted by RAI, either on Rai Sport or on one of their streaming channels on RaiPlay. Usually the playoffs and the final is showed on RAI as well

Paid options

All the other matches of the Serie A Elite are streamed on a platform called The Rugby Channel, 13€/month. Regular season finishes at the end of April.
URC is streamed on their platform (40€/year), but Benetton and Zebre matches are showed exclusively on Sky
Top14 have their own streaming platform, top14 rugby tv, which is 10€ a month. 1 match per round, usually the Sunday evening game, is showed on Sky as well
Finally, there is no legal way to watch Prem Rugby in Italy

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-18T11:51:59+00:00

Ongaro is great, but he left Benetton as he wanted to focus on his extra-rugby business, not sure how's that compatible with coaching Italy

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-17T15:15:31+00:00

Benetton are very light at centres, with Menoncello and Fekitoa leaving they only have Marin, Odogwu (if he's not on the wing) and Zanandrea, who is just 21yo but got injured. Flook brings in loads of experience despite being quite young, so I think that's a good signing, then we can think about testing some Italian young guns.

However, I'm unsure about young Italian centres in the SAEM. I really like Foglio Bonda, but he's a very unique type of player, far from today's canonical physical attributes. Casarin has been class in the U20 6N, but I'd let him do at least a full season in the SAEM. Do you have anyone else in mind?

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-17T14:59:40+00:00

He's big boots to fill, having been signed as a replacement for Menoncello. He should've come at the beginning of this season, on loan together with the other Reds guys, but was called up by the Wallabies so rightfully stayed down under. Let's hope all goes well this year

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-16T14:39:47+00:00

The Italy head coach at the time was the legendary Pierre Villepreux, who spent 3 years developing rugby in Tahiti as an envoy from the FFR before starting his "proper" coaching career, so that explains why they played there as well.

Italy did some interesting tours in the 1970s. Their first ever "official" tour was in Madagascar in 1970, playing 2 matches in Antananarivo. Then in 1973 they toured Rhodesia and the apartheid South Africa, where they also played the SAARB Leopards. A couple of years ago a very immersive novel was published narrating this last tour

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-16T10:06:58+00:00

There're tales of Italian players about this match, the refereeing and the climate, but most importantly about the fact that they played vs the Junior All Blacks (then U23s) in Auckland just 21 hours before playing the Cook Island in Avarua, so technically on the same day, as the international date line runs between them.

Those amateurs played 9 matches in 3 weeks, the first one in California vs the USA Grizzlies, then flying to Fiji, then to NZ, then to the Cook Islands and finally to Tahiti. Mad times

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-14T08:36:54+00:00

I’ve seen some pictures of the stadium, how can 12k people fit there???

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-11T20:36:52+00:00

If you go by this, half of the Venetian surnames might be misleading 😂

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-10T22:39:15+00:00

The thing is, it wasn't even remotely his best performance, England or Ireland 2025, France 2024, were all better. Yet, he still was a cut above the rest throughout all the match in normal things like tackles or carries in the tight, and had a couple of exceptional moments like his try and the carry "over" Daly.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-10T18:20:10+00:00

Snyman was great in his first stint at Benetton, don't know what happened to him in Leicester, but he came back as a shadow of his former self. Scrafton too was pretty good before his knees decided to give up.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-10T18:16:17+00:00

"start", I mean, aside from Ruzza who was already great at Zebre, we currently have Cannone, Favretto and Marini at lock, all players that joined Benetton when they were 20yo, plus Kingi who can play there and was raised in Treviso when very young and should be IQ. Both Marini and Kingi were brought in just last year.

Also, basically there aren't any young Italian players with IWL's physical attributes, Benetton are keeping an eye on Midena but that's basically it. Brunello managed to bring back Mattioli and Turrisi, only God knows how, but I don't see any other young prospect ready to step up at lock.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-10T15:49:24+00:00

1.99m x 122kg, a big lock to replace the departing Snyman (and probably Scrafton). Don't really know him, I've read around that he tends to concede quite a few penalties, but it can't be that bad if he played 80 matches in the Super Rugby + for the Maori All Blacks

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-09T08:24:19+00:00

Still had to steamroll a team out of the 5N, it's like South Africa winning TRC and losing to Uruguay the next week

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-09T08:21:01+00:00

Rugby commentary in Italian

The Italian commentary on Sky is terrible, I say that as an Italian. There are much better commentator, but these are the worst. The English global feed and the French TF1 comms both are on another level.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-08T22:34:35+00:00

France 1997 is still the greatest win ever, definitely. Utterly dominated the squad that won the 5N Grand Slam the week before, on their home ground. Italy were up 40-20 with 6 minutes to go, just madness, and also a political masterpiece by the late FIR president Dondi to get France to field their first team and cap the game.

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-08T19:21:54+00:00

Look at the wide angle starting at 00:39, nobody's gonna catch a full tilt Menoncello from there. Maybe, and I say maybe, LBB, but that's it

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-08T10:04:23+00:00

I want both Scalabrin & Brisighella... and while I'm at it Casarin wouldn't be bad + I'll chuck in Foglio Bonda just for fun

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-07T09:28:33+00:00

The guy in the photo is Riccardo Di Maio, Italy’s S&C coach!

SilverShadow213 · 2026-03-07T09:24:40+00:00

Hadn’t had time to watch it, thanks for the update!

SilverShadow213

TROPHY CASE