Andrea Marcato
Personal information | |||||||
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Full name | Andrea Marcato | ||||||
Date of birth | 17 April 1983 | ||||||
Place of birth | Padua, Italy | ||||||
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||
Weight | 82 kg | ||||||
Club information | |||||||
Position | Utility back | ||||||
Current club | Calvisano | ||||||
Youth clubs | |||||||
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Senior clubs* | |||||||
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Representative teams** | |||||||
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* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only and correct as of 9 November 2015. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of 9 November 2015. |
Andrea Marcato (born 17 April 1983 in Padua, Italy) is an Italian international rugby union player who is a utility back for Calvisano.
He has won 16 caps for Italy and played in two seasons of the Six Nations Championship playing a decisive part as his country avoided a Whitewash in his first Championship.
Principally a fly-half[1] he also plays fullback,[1] making him a utility back.
He won 4 Italian championships with Benetton Treviso and also appeared for them in the Celtic League and the Heineken Cup; in 2011 he came back to Italy to newly promoted Calvisano, with which he won the 2011-12 title, his 5th personal Scudetto and 3rd for the club.
Biography
Andrea Marcato grew up in the small borough of Selvazzano, near Padua, where he started playing rugby at the age of eight[2] encouraged by his father and his uncle who were former rugby union player themselves and coached the team;[2] at 15 he entered the Petrarca Rugby youth academy, and at 19 he won the U-21 Italian Championship with the Padua club.
Marcato debuted in Super 10 (then first tier of Italy's rugby championships) in 2002 and went on playing for Petrarca until 2005, when he left because of problems with the club's French coach Sauton.[2] He then signed a contract with Benetton Treviso where he won the Italian Championship at the first attempt.
After his first national title the National team's head coach Pierre Berbizier called Marcato in the squad and made his debut against Japan in July 2006: Marcato scored 2 penalties in his test debut. That, apart from another test match against Portugal later in October, was the only match Marcato played for the next one and half years.
He had a comeback in 2008 when the new head coach Nick Mallett included him in the squad for the Six Nations; in the last match of the tournament against Scotland Marcato scored a drop goal that gave Italy the win 23-20[3] and prevented the squad from recording a Whitewash. Later in June in Córdoba, Argentina, he converted a late try that allowed Italy to get past the Pumas 13-12.[4] He also took part to the 2009 Six Nations where he played, to date, his last International match, against France at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome.
He went on playing club rugby for Benetton Treviso until 2010, then returned to Petrarca; in early 2011 he was loaned back to Benetton as replacement in Celtic League; at the end of the 2010-11 season he came back to the Italian championship and signed with Calvisano[5] which had just been promoted to the Eccellenza (the first tier championship).
Marcato helped Calvisano to become the first Italian club to win the top tier a year after winning promotion from the second division (2012);[6] having won previously 4 titles with Benetton Treviso, the latter was his 5th personal Scudetto.
Honours
Club
- Benetton Treviso
- 2005-06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009-10 Super 10 (Italian Premiership)
- 2009-10 Italian Cup
- 2006, 2009 Italian Supercup
- Calvisano
- 2011-12 Eccellenza (Italian Premiership)
- 2001-12 Italian Cup
International
- Italy: 16 caps, 81 points (2006-)
References
- 1 2 "Mallett rings changes in Italy side". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Intervista ad Andrea Marcato, eroe per un giorno. "Grazie Mallett, con il Sei Nazioni sono cresciuto"" [Interview to Andrea Marcato, hero for one day: "Thank you Mallett, with the Six Nations I improved a lot"]. Corriere del Veneto (in Italian) (Venice). 19 March 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- ↑ "Italy 23-20 Scotland". RTÉ. 15 March 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- ↑ "Italy stun Pumas at the death". Western Mail (Cardiff). 30 June 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- ↑ ""Leoni", partenze illustri" ["Leoni", important farewells]. la Tribuna di Treviso (in Italian) (Treviso). 3 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- ↑ "Calvisano nella storia: scudetto da matricola" [Calvisano make history: Italian champion just after promotion in top tier]. la Repubblica (Rome). 19 May 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2012.