Rome, 3 July 2018 - The Italian Rugby Federation [FIR] and Cattolica Assicurazioni today formalised an agreement in Rome for the main sponsorship, which will let the insurance Group from Verona place its logo on the National Teams’ jerseys for the next seven years.

Cattolica Assicurazioni will also provide the naming on the international World Rugby windows in autumn, signing the Cattolica Test Matches, which will be contested by the Azzurri in November, starting with the 2018 triple against Georgia (Florence, 10 November) Australia (Padua, 17 November) and New Zealand (Rome, 24 November).  

The sponsorship agreement was signed this morning in the CONI Council Hall in Rome by the President of the Italian Rugby Federation, Alfredo Gavazzi, and the Chief Executive Officer of Cattolica Assicurazioni, Alberto Minali, with the presence of CONI President Giovanni Malagò, the Chairman of Cattolica Assicurazioni Paolo Bedoni, the Azzurri Head Coach O'Shea and a broad representation of the athletes of the National Teams.

"We are thrilled to welcome Cattolica Assicurazioni into the family of Italian rugby, a company that, like our Federation and our National Teams, boasts a long business tradition and strong commitment to developing their own competitiveness. The great international rugby, with Cattolica Test Matches in November, the 6 Nations and the Rugby World Cup next year in Japan, is an ideal breeding ground for a company determined to increase its brand awareness, the first entirely Italian company to become a sponsor of the National Team", said the President of FIR, Alfredo Gavazzi.

"The Cattolica Test Matches in autumn, with the challenges to Georgia, Australia and New Zealand, will mark the first big visibility occasion for our partnership, an opportunity for our National Team to compete at a high level and for our new main sponsor to introduce the Group to the tens of thousands of fans who attend matches in the stands and the hundreds of thousands of fans who will support our National Team in front of a screen", added the Italian rugby number one.

"It’s a historic day for Cattolica, which now embarks on a thrilling journey alongside Italian rugby, convinced of the many traits it has in common with this discipline. Rugby is a sport that requires cohesion, participation, talent, respect for the opponent and healthy competition. In rugby the individual plays, but the team is the winner: these are the same values that drive the daily work of our company, now engaged in a deep cultural transformation", said Alberto Minali, CEO of Cattolica Assicurazioni. "For the first time, an Italian company is supporting the National Teams and youth movements, male and female, in rugby, and this is a source of great pride for us, an added impetus to link our name to that of the Federation and support a sport distinguished by healthy competition. We like to think also that a clean world like that of the fans of the oval ball is beginning to understand and recognize themselves in our company" concluded Minali.

Italian audio only.

We apologize but for technical problems the audio of the press conference is partially disturbed.