Stadio Flaminio
Rome, Italy
ground photo
Viale Maresciallo Pilsudski, Rome, Italy
Capacity 24,973
Floodlights Yes
Other sports Football (AS Cisco Roma), Equestrianism
Time 11:37, Tue Mar 19, 2024 (UTC +0100)
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The Stadio Flaminio is the smallest but probably the prettiest of the Six Nations venues, with its tree-lined hillside backdrop.

It's a simple, single-tier stadium which was constructed on the site of an older ground in the late 1950s to help host the 1960 Olympic Games (you can see the five-ring symbol above the players' tunnel). The first international rugby match there was a 44-6 win for France over Italy in 1935.

The crowd capacity of 24,500 is half the number who used to watched the gladiators do their stuff at the Colosseum, and to deal with demand for tickets a few thousand temporary seats were put in for Italy's 2008 Six Nations matches against England and Scotland. Despite various arguments to use other venues such Bologna, Genoa, Padua and the Olympic Stadium in Rome, the Flaminio has hosted every Italy home match in the Championship since the first which was a famous 34-20 victory over the Scots in February 2000.

Italy's rugby hotbed situated elsewhere in the northern cities of Parma, Bologna and Treviso so you are unlikely to get waylaid in a heated debate over your scrum-half's spin pass as you make your way on foot or by tram or taxi up the Via Flaminia a couple of miles north-west of Rome's city centre.

But there is always a lively atmosphere on match days and the locals revelled in other Italy wins over Scotland (2004 and 2008) and Wales (2003 and 2007). The latter match finished riotously with hundreds of Azzurri fans celebrating on the pitch while Wales's captain Gareth Thomas pleaded with England referee Chris White to explain confusion over time-keeping involving the TMO.

Scrum Staff October 2008

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