| Birth name | Giambattista Croci | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 28 July 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 220 lb (100 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Giambattista Croci (born 28 July 1965, in San Benedetto del Tronto) is a former Italian rugby union player. He played as a lock.
San Benedetto del Tronto is a city and comune in Marche, Italy. Part of an urban area with 100,000 inhabitants, it is one of the most densely populated areas along the Adriatic Sea coast. Its port is one of the biggest on the Adriatic; it is the most important centre of Riviera of the Palms, with over 8,000 Phoenix canariensis, Washingtonia and P. sylvestris plants.
Croci first played at Sambenedettese, appearing at the first team at 1983/84, at the Serie C. During a stint at Interforze di Napoli, during his military service, he was noticed and assigned for Rugby Rovigo, in 1988/89. The apex of his team career was achieved at Amatori Rugby Milano, where he played from 1989/90 to 1997/98, winning 4 Italian Championship titles, in 1990/91, 1992/93, 1994/95 and 1995/96, and the Cup of Italy in 1994/95. His final team was Rugby Calvisano, from 1998/99 to 1999/2000, where he finished his career, aged 34 years old.
Amatori Rugby Milano are an ex Italian rugby union team based in Milan founded in 1927 and disbanded in 2011.
Rugby Calvisano is an Italian rugby union club currently competing in the Top12. They are based in Calvisano, in Lombardy. They were founded in 1970 by a group of players: Tonino Montanari, Gianluigi Vaccari and Alfredo Gavazzi. In 1992 the club became “Rugby Calvisano S.r.l.”
Croci had 24 caps for Italy, scoring 3 tries, in an aggregate of 13 points. His first game was on 30 September 1990, in a 30–6 win over Spain, in Rovigo, for the 1991 Rugby World Cup qualifiers. He was called for the 1991 Rugby World Cup, playing in all three games, but never scoring. He was called once more for the 1995 Rugby World Cup but this time he didn't play. He was a decisive player in the historic 40–32 win over France at Grenoble, that gave Italy their first ever title of the 1995–1997 FIRA Trophy, scoring the third try at 56 minutes at a moment in which the game was levelled 20-20. Italian journalist Corrado Sanucci described it as the try that "brought Italian rugby from local soil to consecrate it at the BBC". [1]
The Italy national rugby union team is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Italy. The team is known as gli Azzurri. Savoy blue is the common colour of the national teams representing Italy, as it is the traditional colour of the royal House of Savoy which reigned over the Kingdom of Italy from 1860 to 1946.
The Spain national rugby union team, nicknamed Los Leones, is administered by the Spanish Rugby Federation. The team annually takes part in the European Nations Cup, the highest European rugby championship outside the Six Nations. The national side is ranked 17th in the world.
Rovigo is a town and comune in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, the capital of the eponymous province.
Croci's last game for Italy was at the 23–20 loss to Wales, on 7 February 1998, in Llanelli, in a tour, aged 32 years old. [2]
The Wales national rugby union team represents Wales in international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international against England. The team plays its home matches at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which replaced Cardiff Arms Park as the national stadium of Wales in 1999.
Llanelli is the largest town in the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. Located on the Loughor estuary, some 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Swansea and 12 miles (19 km) south-east of the county town, Carmarthen, Llanelli is famous for its rugby tradition and as a centre of tinplate production. Several communities nearby the town are often included colloquially in Llanelli.
