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Worcester sign Italian international Renato Giammarioli
By Ian Cameron
Worcester Warriors have signed Italian back row Renato Giammarioli from Zebre - the club have confirmed.
Giammarioli is the second Italian signing of the Steve Diamond era at Sixways, with fellow Azzurri Hame Faiva also on his way to the club.
The 6'2, 111kg No.8 is the seventh signing by 'Lead Rugby Consultant' Diamond, who will next season takeover from Alan Solomons as director of rugby.
Diamond has already signed Curtis Langdon and Cameron Neild from Sale, Fergus Lee-Warner and Santiago Medrano from the Western Force, hooker Hame Faiva from Benetton and Russian prop Valery Morozov from Bath.
“Renato is a great addition to the squad. He is a very ambitious player who has a fantastic skillset. His dynamic carrying and confrontational defence will serve Warriors next season,” said Diamond.
Giammarioli, 27, made his Italy debut in the 2017 Autumn Internationals as a replacement against South Africa. His most recent international match was against New Zealand in Rome in November.
After playing junior rugby for Frascati, Giammarioli moved on to Calvisano to play club rugby before joining Zebre.
In 2014 and 2015, he represented Italy at the Under-20 level before moving on to the Emerging Players squad and eventually becoming a senior international.
“I am very glad to start this new chapter of my career with Worcester Warriors,” Giammarioli said.
“I am sure it will be an amazing experience that will develop my life skills both as a player and a man.
“I am looking forward to meeting my team-mates and experiencing the glorious English rugby culture.”
The looseforward has already played against Worcester Warriors, facing them in the Challenge Cup earlier in the year.
Speaking previously about his recruitment tactic, Diamond said: "The players that are coming in are not massive names. But the skill of this job is making people into big names, not buying them.
“Worcester have been tempted to do that plenty of times, just big household rugby names who haven’t really delivered. That’s not my bag. My bag is to bring players with experience with domestic rugby and international rugby, who are solid dependable players who you can hopefully get 20 to 25 games out of a year.
"It’s got to be an age profile as well. You want people who are between 24 and 28, if you can, in their prime, who played 75 per cent of the games where they’re been before."
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Latest Comments
At least he no longer writes articles related to the All Blacks. The suggestion with these ratings is that the ABs have a lot more left in the tank... Which is nonsense, this was a nail biter of a test of the highest standard and both sides we're going at it hammer and tongs. As is often the case in rugby, the team that managed to score the most tries won.
Go to commentsWho, the ABs? Oh for sure, they punched above their weight in that cup, but also had got a lot better than anyone had thought they could (except perhaps SAn's) well out from the WC (to the point where you were disappointed not to win it). Then they've probably done the most post analyzing of their RWCs in the past, due to all their failures, they knew how to maximize their itinerary and that first game against France was of less importance than any one off test was against. At least a test like this weekends had meaning, even if it's not surrounded by any overarching point. That first match in the RWC though, along with the Ireland v SA game, were totally meaningless. Everyone already knew they were only going to be up against each other, and that's why NZ were only at around 70% during it.
So you're quite right, it was pointless to make as much out of it as this author did. The same pretty much goes for 2 years prior as well, because that's obviously before the above happened. NZ were at least trying very hard in that game, and although it needed some Ntamack magic at the end, France looked pretty comfortable, or should I say, NZ very poor. That picture obviously turned around this year, but still with that fabulous French flair scoring some crazy tries to win it again.
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