The All Blacks will play the test match with Italy on November 23 in Turin. The Italian Rugby Federation and Rai renew their partnership for two seasons to broadcast the rugby championship. The Fir restores the Italian Cup after a year of absence. These are the three pieces of news given by the federal president Marzio Innocenti in the interview with Vito Giannulo live on Rai 2, during the interval of the championship final won by Petrarca 28-10 over Viadana.
New Zealand in Turin
The most interesting is the one relating to the All Blacks in the autumn tests. Innocenti never mentioned them, it’s fair to say, but when he spoke about the three November matches of the national team he mentioned the cities that will host them: Udine, Genoa and Turin. We already know about the first two. Italy-Argentina will be played in Udine, in Genoa and Italy-Georgia. Italy-New Zealand remains and Turin is honestly a surprise as a venue.
In the Juventus stadium
To maximize capacity for New Zealand, which always attracts the largest crowd, we thought of the usual Olympic stadium in Rome. Or at San Siro in Milan, if the difficult agreement with Milan and Inter had been reached (it only happened once, in 2009). In Turin there is no stadium with a similar capacity of 60-80 thousand seats. The Allianz Stadium or Juventus Stadium holds around 40 thousand spectators, the “Grande Torino” Olympic stadium just under 30 thousand. Was Innocenti’s mistake therefore, did he mean Rome and not Turin? Or did he mean Turin himself? If it is actually played in Turin, perhaps in the Juventus arena, the combination will be suggestive. It will bring back to the Piedmontese capital a big team from the southern hemisphere as had already happened in 2008 with Italy-Argentina 14-22 and in 2013 with Italy-Australia 20-50. To complete the four nations, only the Springboks would be missing.
Rai and Italian Cup
As regards Rai and the Italian Cup, however, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Both the president and the presenter spoke about continuing the relationship, with Innocenti underlining the importance of Rai’s role in broadcasting rugby free-to-air, integrating what SkySport does with the Six Nations and the paid URC .
For the Italian Cup, the announcement is confirmation of what was already circulating in terms of rumors surrounding the newly created Rugby League of the Elite Serie A clubs. Of all the requests made to the Federation so far, only the return of the ten-team (official) championship and the reinstatement of the Italian Cup, at this point made official by Innocenti, would have passed.
