1995–97 FIRA Trophy

1995-97 FIRA Trophy
Date	19 November 1995 – 23 May 1997
Countries	Belgium  France  Germany  Italy  Morocco  Portugal  Romania  Russia  Spain  Tunisia
Tournament statistics
Champions	Italy
Matches played	41
← 1992–1994 (Previous) (Next) 1996–1997 →

The 1995–1997 FIRA Trophy was arranged again with a new format.

Due the work to prepare the 1995 Rugby World Cup, France, Italy and Romania were not able to participate in the 1994-95 season of any competition, so for that season a "Preliminary Tournament" was organized with ten other teams. The better seven teams were admitted to this tournament, with France, Italy and Romania.

The tournament lived a great crisis, due to lower interest of the strongest teams: France sent usually minor teams, and Italy was involved in more important matches with the strongest teams of the world like Australia, England and Wales.

This is evident looking the results and the program. France played the first round robin with the Military team, Italy and Romania didn't arrange a match for this tournament, but considered valid the match played in neutral ground in Argentina for the "Latina Cup". Italy sent two lower level teams to play (in the same weekend) the last two matches. The final between Italy and France was played only in March 1997, while the 1996-97 edition was already progressing at half way.

This edition was important because it was the first ever triumph of Italy in the competition, defeating France by 40-32 in the final, thus cementing their claims to be the sixth European rugby nation powerhouse. Italy had started to play in this tournament with France in 1966 and, despite some close results, had never previously beaten their strong rivals. Italy win, shortly after France had carried the 1997 Five Nations Championship, was a historical feat that proved to be crucial for Italy's admission at the Six Nations Championship in 2000.

First division

Preliminary Tournament

Three directly admitted

•  France
•  Italy
•  Romania

And seven qualified from the preliminary tournament

•  Belgium
•  Morocco
•  Poland
•  Portugal
•  Russia
•  Spain
•  Tunisia

Pool A

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	France	4	4	0	0	194	29	+165	12
2	Spain	4	3	0	1	91	90	+1	10
3	Russia	4	2	0	2	37	95	-58	8
4	Morocco	4	1	0	3	41	70	-29	6
5	Tunisia	4	0	0	4	11	78	-67	2

• France qualified to Final

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Pool B

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Italy	4	4	0	0	249	35	+214	12
2	Romania	4	3	0	1	218	54	+164	10
3	Portugal	4	2	0	2	70	177	-107	8
4	Poland	4	1	0	3	61	195	-134	6
5	Belgium	4	0	0	4	43	180	-137	4

• Italy qualified to the final

Point system: try 4 pt, conversion: 2 pt., penalty kick 3 pt. drop 3 pt Click "show" for more info about match (scorers, line-up etc.)

21 October 1995	Italy	40 - 3	Romania	Stadium Etcheverri, Buenos Aires
	Try: Checchinato 2, Mazzariol, Moscardi, Roselli Con: Bonomi 3 Pen: Bonomi 3		Pen: Besarau	Referee: Efraim Sklar
Italy: 15. Paolo Vaccari, 14. Fabio Roselli, 13. Marco Platania, 12. Ivan Francescato, 11. Francesco Mazzariol, 10. Massimo Bonomi, 9. Alessandro Troncon, 8. Carlo Checchinato, 7. Andrea Sgorlon, 6. Massimo Giovanelli, 5. Mark Giacheri, 4. Pierpaolo Pedroni, 3. Andrea Castellani, 2. Carlo Orlandi, 1. Massimo Cuttitta (cap.) - replacements: 16. Alessandro Moscardi, 17. Orazio Arancio, 18. Carlo Caione, 19. Gabriel Filizzola
Romania: 15. Valentin Maftei, 14. Gheorghe Solomie, 13. Marius Nedelcu, 12. Tiberiu Luca, 11. Radu Fugigi, 10. Vasile Besarau, 9. Vasile Flutur, 8. Adrian Girbu, 7. Alexandru Gealapu, 6. Andrei Guranescu, 5. Constantin Cojocariu (cap.), 4. Micusor Marin, 3. Adrian Salageanu, 2. Ionel Negreci, 1. Gabriel Vlad - replacements: 16. Ionel Rotaru, 17. Catalin Draguceanu, 18. Dragos Niculae, 19. Constantin Dragnea

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3 March 1996	Portugal	3 - 64	Italy	Universitário, Lisbon
	Try: Babbo 2, Dominguez Francescato 2, Mazzucato, Orlandi, Platania 2, Properzi Con: Dominguez 7			Referee: Garcia Mostaza
Portugal: 15. José Vilar Gomes, 14. Paulo Murinello, 13. Nuno Durão, 12. Nuno Mourão, 11. Rohan Hoffmann, 10. N.M. Vilar Gomes, 9. Luís Pissarra, 8. Pedro Castro, 7. António Cunha, 6. J. Catulo, 5. Lopes Rodrigues, 4. Pedro Rogerio Arsenio, 3. Joaquim Ferreira, 2. Paulo Silva, 1. J.P. Costa - replacements: 16. Vasco Durão, 17. E. Galvão, 18. A. Lima
Italy: 15. Massimo Ravazzolo, 14. Nicola Mazzucato, 13. Marco Platania, 12. Ivan Francescato, 11. Simone Babbo, 10. Diego Dominguez, 9. Gianluca Guidi, 8. Orazio Arancio, 7. Andrea Sgorlon, 6. Carlo Caione, 5. Roberto Favaro, 4. Andrea Gritti, 3. Franco Properzi, 2. Carlo Orlandi, 1. Massimo Cuttitta (cap.) - replacements: 16. Piergiorgi Menapace, 17. Riccardo Piovan, 18. Francesco Mazzariol, 19. Walter Cristofoletto

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Final

France  Jean-Luc Sadourny Stephane Ougier Yann Delaigue Pierre Bondouy Philippe Saint-André David Aucagne Guy Accoceberry Fabien Pelous Arnaud Costes Philippe Benetton Hugues Miorin Olivier Merle Franck Tournaire Marc Dal Maso Marc de Rougemont   Serge Betsen Raphael Ibanez   Pierre Villepreux

FB 15 FB RW 14 RW OC 13 OC IC 12 IC LW 11 LW FH 10 FH SH 9 SH N8 8 N8 OF 7 OF BF 6 BF RL 5 RL LL 4 LL TP 3 TP HK 2 HK LP 1 LP Substitutions:     Coaches

Italy Javier Pértile Paolo Vaccari Stefano Bordon Ivan Francescato Marcello Cuttitta Diego Dominguez Alessandro Troncon Julian Gardner Andrea Sgorlon Massimo Giovanelli (c) Giambattista Croci Walter Cristofoletto Franco Properzi Carlo Orlandi Massimo Cuttitta   Francesco Mazzariol Gianluca Guidi   Georges Coste

Second division

Pool 1 (Gold)

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Netherlands	4	3	1	0	107	31	+76	11
2	Georgia	4	3	0	1	40	61	-21	10
3	Germany	4	2	0	2	52	48	+4	8
4	Czech Republic	4	1	0	3	62	80	-18	6
5	Denmark	4	0	1	3	37	75	-38	4

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Pool 2 (Silver)

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Serbia and Montenegro	2	2	0	0	69	21	+48	6
2	Andorra	2	1	0	1	25	38	-13	4
3	Bulgaria	2	0	0	2	17	52	-35	2

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Third division

Pool 1

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Ukraine	3	3	0	0	84	11	+73	9
2	Latvia	3	2	0	1	50	44	+6	7
3	Moldova	3	1	0	2	20	61	-41	5
4	Lithuania	3	0	0	3	38	76	-38	3

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Pool 2

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Hungary	2	2	0	0	55	19	+36	6
2	Slovenia	2	1	0	1	23	44	-21	4
3	Austria	2	0	0	2	18	33	-15	2

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Pool 3

Place	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	Croatia	2	2	0	0	37	18	+19	6
2	Israel	2	1	0	1	26	33	-7	4
3	Luxembourg	2	0	0	2	24	36	-12	2

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Notes and references

Bibliography

• (Italian) Francesco Volpe, Valerio Vecchiarelli (2000), 2000 Italia in Meta, Storia della nazionale italiana di rugby dagli albori al Sei Nazioni, GS Editore (2000) ISBN 88-87374-40-6.
• (Italian) Francesco Volpe, Paolo Pacitti (Author), Rugby 2000, GTE Gruppo Editorale (1999).

External links

• FIRA-AER official website