The 1973 Italy rugby union tour of South Africa and Rhodesia was a series of matches played between June and July 1973 in South Africa and Rhodesia by Italy national rugby union team.
It was the second time that the "Azzurri" toured outside Europe, after a short tour in Madagascar in 1970.
The experience signed a turn in the story of Italian rugby: before of that, contact with the bigger union members was almost non-existent, and limited only to confrontations with France (between 1952 and 1967).
The tour was arranged by Italian federation and SARB, that sent coach Amos du Plooy to Italy to prepare the team. It was an historical tour, but the results were very poor: only a victory against the SARF Leopard selection.
The most important player of the last match, against Transvaal XV, was Rocco Caligiuri: the fly-half (but normally play ad full-back) scored three drops. It was the first time that a player scored three drops in an international match in South Africa. A plate was then put on the wall of Ellis Park Stadium.
Results Scores and results list Italy's points tally first. Opposing Team For Against Date Venue Rhodesia44216 June 1973SalisburyWestern Transvaal63220 June 1973PotchefstroomBorder122523 June 1973East LondonNorth East Cape123127 June 1973Cradock32330 June 1973Kings Park, DurbanEastern Transvaal12394 July 1973WitbankLeopards2447 July 1973Port ElizabethNorthern Free State11129 July 1973WelkomTransvaal XV242811 July 1973Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Bibliography Valerio Vecchiarelli, Francesco Volpe, 2000, Italia in meta, GS editore, 2000.
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