Unione Rugby Capitolina

Unione Rugby Capitolina
	Federazione Italiana Rugby
Nickname(s)	La Legione Romana (The Roman Legion)
Founded	1996
Location	Rome, Italy
Ground(s)	Campo dell'Unione; Via Flaminia 867; 00191 Rome
Chairman	Giorgio Vaccaro
Coach(es)	Marco Orsini
Captain(s)	Filippo De Michelis
League(s)	Serie A
Team kit	2nd kit
Official website
	www.capitolina.com

41°57′9.6″N 12°29′0.5″E / 41.952667°N 12.483472°E / 41.952667; 12.483472

Unione Rugby Capitolina is an Italian rugby union club, based in Rome.

History

The team, initially located in the Acqua Acetosa establishment, was founded in 1996. The initial intent of the team was to focus on the younger rugby players, so the seniores team commenced two years after the foundation of the team, in 1998.

Unione Rugby Capitolina won two U.19 national championships: in the 2002–2003 season, winning against the rivals of Lazio-Primavera Rugby in the final held at

Rugby Rovigo

.

1998 is the year in which the Club moves to its own establishment in Via Flaminia and inaugurates the seniores team, mainly composed of friends and newcomers. Capitolina, captained by Stefano Montalto and coached by Luca Santaroni, starts from the serie C2 and manages to immediately obtain the promotion to serie C1, beating all the teams in their league. The year after another coach joins Santaroni: Marco Iscaro, and together the two coaches manage to bring the team to the serie B, after solely two years from the team's existence.

In the 2005/6 season Capitolina was promoted to Italy's highest rugby league, the

Super 10, with a perfect winning record of 22 wins and a total of 110 points. They won the playoffs against city rivals Rugby Roma

with a 20–9 victory to reach the top Italian rugby league after only ten years of existence.

Capitolina had been striving to deliver better results both in the national league and in the various European trophies that were available. Although with limited success, key investments in infrastructure and players started to have an impact.

At the end of the 2008/2009 season the Board decided not to proceed with the existing formula of "professional" rugby and withdrew the First XV from the

Super 10 to L'Aquila Rugby

.

The First XV activities were brought forward by a 4th division team composed only of Members of the club, the former "ControProgetto".