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:
thumb|150px|First historic shirt c. 1935
thumb|View of the Rovigo Stadium
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:90%; width:70%"
|-
! colspan="100%" | Rovigo Delta squad
|- valign="top"
|
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
- 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
|-
| colspan="100%" style="height: 10px;" |
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| colspan="100%" style="text-align:center;" | (c) denotes the team captain, Bold denotes internationally capped players. <br/> <sup>*</sup> denotes players qualified to play for Italy on residency or dual nationality. <br/> Players and their allocated positions from the Rovigo Delta website.
|}
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
Sources:
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:left; style=border:none; font-size:80%; width:100%"
|
- 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)
|}