Riccardo Genovese

An Italy-qualified back-row forward developed through the Zebre system, Riccardo Genovese was born on 13 April 2002 and is contracted to Zebre Parma in the United Rugby Championship. As a flanker, his role is the classic loose-forward brief: live on the gain line, hunt the breakdown, complete the unrewarded tackles and provide the kind of constant work rate that frees the team's bigger names to do their work. Genovese is part of the broader Italian rugby project that has used Zebre as a development ground for Azzurri-eligible forwards, and his pathway sits alongside an Italian national programme that has gradually broadened its loose-forward stocks. At club level he is in the early professional phase of his career, where exposure to URC rugby and European fixtures provides the most valuable form of education a young forward can get. The challenge in front of him is the one common to any young Italian back-rower coming through Zebre: to convert squad involvement into consistent starts and become a settled member of the side's loose-forward rotation across the long URC season.