Martin Castrogiovanni could be on his way back to Leicester Tigers
Rugby NewsSunday, 18 October 2020 at 08:51
Leicester Tigers legend Martin Castrogiovanni has been earmarked for a shock return to Welford Road by a report in The Rugby Paper today.
The Italian legend could be set to replace scrum coach Boris Stankovich, who will leave the club ahead of the new 2020/21 Gallagher Premiership season.
Castrogiovanni, who made more than 100 appearances for Tigers during a seven-year playing stint, could return either full-time or on a consultancy basis.
The powerhouse prop won 119 caps for Italy between 2002 and 2016
Formerly an Argentina Under-19 and Under-21 international, he played his early rugby with Atletico Estudiantes in Argentina before moving to Italian side Calvisano in 2001. He spent five years with them before being snapped up by the Leicester Tigers in 2006.
He made an immediate impact in English rugby's top flight and was named Guinness Premiership Player of the Year at the end of his debut season - in the process becoming the first prop and Italian to scoop the honour.
An ever-present with Italy in two Rugby World Cups, he made his international debut against New Zealand in 2002 and notched up his 50th Test cap during the Six Nations in 2008. He scored a hat-trick of tries against Japan in 2004 and was the Azzurri's top try-scorer in the 2008 Six Nations with three scores.
On the domestic stage, he acquired cult status at Welford Road and a reputation as one of the league's most fearsome props. Castrogiovanni played a key role in the Tigers' dominance of the England domestic scene in the naughties helping them to Premiership titles in 2007, 2009 and 2010.
DID YOU KNOW?
- In 2011, after much speculation about a move from Leicester to France, he declared "money isn't everything" and stayed
- He is good friends with football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović
- Castrogiovanni is the co-owner of an Italian restaurant in Leicester
- He speaks four languages: his native Spanish, Italian, English and French
- He owns more than seven dogs
LIST | Six times rugby players seriously MESSED up
Here are six times rugby players and coaches seriously messed up...
1 Martin Castrogiovanni in Vegas, 2016
Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni had been suspended by his club Racing 92 after pictures of him partying in Las Vegas surfaced on social media with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The 34-year-old had told Racing that he could not play in their Champions Cup semi-final clash with Leicester Tigers as he had a family matter to attend to in Argentina. Naughty boy.
2 England vs dwarves, 2011
Current Captain Mike Tindall was leading his country into battle at the 2011 Rugby World Cup but still had time to play a part in the ‘Mad Midget Weekender’ along with a number of other squad members.
Incidents such as that plus Tindall kissing his ex-girlfriend in a bar and Manu Tuilagi diving into Auckland harbour ‘became the story’, summed up what was overall a terrible campaign for the men in white.
2 John Jeffrey & Dean Richards vs the Calcutta Cup, 1988
It was not only Scottish pride that was dented after they lost 9-6 to England at Murrayfield, the almost priceless Calcutta Cup itself came in for some rough treatment itself.
Scotland's John Jeffrey and England's Dean Richards (a policeman in the real world) kicked the 110-year-old trophy down Edinburgh's Princes Street.
he outrage could not have been more had it been the Queen Mother instead of the cup, with some calling for life bans.
As it was, Jeffrey was banned for six months and Richards for one match.
3 Andy Powell in a golf cart, 2010
He's the Welsh rugby star who nicked a golf buggy under the influence of alcohol and took it for a spin down the M4.
Powell was disqualified from driving for 15 months and fined £1,000 for driving a buggy down the hard shoulder of the M4 in the early hours of Valentines Day in 2010.
Brecon-born Powell had been out celebrating Wales’ last-gasp win over Scotland at the Millennium Stadium, in which he had played 49 minutes.
He was arrested at a motorway service station at junction 33 of the M4 after he decided to drive the golf buggy from the Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort off junction 34 to get some “munchies”.
4 Pontypridd vs Brive, 1997
The famous “Battle of Brive” began on the pitch and spilled over into an almost full-scale riot in a bar afterwards.
5 Trevor Brennan vs a fan 2007
One of the few incidents that do not involve the aggressors being drunk.
Former milkman and full-time mentalist Brennan decided that an Ulster fan needed a good hiding and so waded into the crowd to make it so, raining punches down on his head.
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