The collaboration between the Rugby Parma and the technicians Filippo Frati And Cristian Prestera which, together with Roland DeMarigny, will make up the trio of technical directors of the yellow-blue club, each with specific skills: Frati will take care of the attack and the play of the backs, Prestera of the defense and forwards, in collaboration with the director of rugby, De Marigny. Both will be present full time and will follow all the senior and youth teams of Rugby Parma, from under 14 to 1st XV. They will also hold, respectively, the role of head coach of the first team and assistant coach of the Under 18 Filippo Frati and head coach of the Under 18 and assistant coach of the 1 XV Cristian Prestera.
“We are fortunate to be able to include in our club two technicians of great value not only at a local level, but also at a national level – the welcome greeting from Roland DeMarigny -. Together we will work to create a competitive club, giving ample space to our players. This is the objective we have set ourselves as a club: in the near future to have a team made up almost exclusively of athletes from our academy. We are starting to work towards this objective as soon as the new season is upon us. The presence of two coaches of Cristian and Filippo’s caliber will certainly enrich both our staff and our players.”
“I know Rugby Parma very well and I am very attached to it – the words of Filippo Frati -; my children play here and my brother coaches, it’s a club that means a lot to our whole family. The Rugby Parma project and its desire to grow have aroused great interest in me and I am extremely grateful to be able to put the experience I have gained in all these years around Italy at the disposal of a club that I love very much and which has enormous potential with very high numbers of practitioners and many good young coaches who are already working very well. We have been friends with Cristian for a long time, we have played together as well as having trained together in the last three years. I know his value and facing this new adventure together with him and Roland, two people I respect and consider friends, gives me great energy and gives me hope for future results”.
“We arrive in an already structured company, with a long tradition, a prestigious history and an ambitious project – he adds Cristian Prestera -. Our task will be to contribute very actively to the technical growth of the players and coaches of all categories of Rugby Parma from the Under 14 to the first team, understood as 1st XV and cadet because the first objective we set ourselves is that all senior athletes aim to play in the first team for Rugby Parma. I chose to embrace this project first of all because this is a club that I have known and respected since I arrived in Italy. Then, obviously, I was attracted by the possibility of working together with friends like Pippo and Roland. It’s a very stimulating new challenge and I’m sure it will be very constructive for myself as a coach too.”
“We thank Roland De Marigny – both conclude – and together with him the club managers, from president Bernardo Borri, to Pietro Rusconi and Alberto Balestrieri who involved us in this project making us feel welcome and appreciated”.
The name and fame of Prestera and Frati, like those of De Marigny, are well known in the Italian rugby scene, but we want to summarize the main data of their respective careers, wishing them good work!
Filippo Frati, a scrum half born in 1972, who grew up in the Noceto youth team, not yet of age he made his debut in the first team in Serie A in 1990. In 1998 he moved to Rugby Parma with which he made over 100 appearances in 5 years. In 2000 he made his debut in the senior national team with which he obtained 4 international appearances between that year and the following one. In 2003 he moved to GRAN Parma where he remained until 2006, before moving to Colorno in A1 for two seasons. Having concluded his playing career in 2008, he became a full-time coach, taking charge of the Noceto first team with which he obtained promotion to the A1 series and admission to the top flight for the 2010-11 season. After a season as coach of the Crociati (franchise between Rugby Parma and Rugby Noceto), he moved to the Cavalieri Prato with whom he qualified for the championship final for two consecutive years. At Rovigo for two seasons from 2013 to 2015, he led the team to the final of both the Excellence Trophy and both championships. 3 seasons followed at Viadana, with which he won the Excellence Trophy in his first year, and 2 at CUS Milano. At the beginning of 2021 he arrived at Colorno in the Top 12 first and then in Serie A Elite.
Cristian Jorge José Prestera, born in Rosario in 1973, trained as a rugby player in his city’s university club, with which he played several seasons in the provincial championship and even represented the province of Rosario in the Argentine national championship. He arrived in Italy in 2000 at Livorno in the A1 series. He then moved to the Super 10 with GRAN Parma until 2005 when he arrived at Colorno where he ended his competitive career as a prop in 2009 following an injury and where he began training first the youth teams then, after a brief period at the Gran Duchy, the first team with which achieved promotion to A1 in the 2012/13 season. Between 2012 and 2015, he undertook federal activity at the FIR Ivan Francescato academy and was also entrusted for a period of time as assistant coach of the national youth team. From 2015 to 2018 she took on the role of technical guide of the Colorno women’s sector, qualifying for the final of the 2016/17 championship and winning the 2017/18 championship. In the following season he was appointed head coach of the red and white 1 XV teaming with Roland De Marigny, achieving promotion to the Top12. In the 2021/2022 season, in addition to holding the role of forward coach of the first team, he was entrusted with the helm of the under 19 team with which he became Italian Champion.
