The weather starts to warm up nicely in Treviso at this time of year and so does the race for playoff places in the United Rugby Championship. Benetton – Treviso’s team and the cream of Italian rugby – are fifth in the league table and on course to reach the URC quarter-finals, booking a place in next season’s European Champions Cup in the process, but they could slip out of the top eight with just one defeat.
The club’s annual budget of €8m is half what league leaders Leinster spend, but the Benetton family expect a return on their money. With three games to play in the regular season and their place in the top eight still not secured, the heat is on. “There’s a lot more focus now,” says Jacob Umaga, the former England international who joined the club in 2022 when Wasps went into administration. “We’ve not reached our ceiling and we’ve got such a good squad. We’ve got two of our last three games away and know one poor performance will take us straight out of the top eight.”
Umaga is one of five products of the English game who have migrated to the beautiful Venetian city. They may be out of mind for English fans but, with every game live on British TV, they are not out of sight. If you catch a Benetton game, expect to be entertained. Their match against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday was typical. Umaga was at the centre of things, scoring 22 points in a crucial 42-31 win.
Such high-scoring games are common. Benetton regularly score a hatful, ship them or both. They went out of Europe a fortnight ago after a helter-skelter game at Castres; they conceded after three minutes, levelled immediately, were leading 34-27 with an hour gone and ended up losing 39-37. Castres scored their winning try with eight seconds left. It was the 10th time since October that Benetton games have been decided by eight points or fewer.
“We put ourselves in good positions and we don’t always execute,” says Umaga. “It means, at the end, something needs to come out of nothing.” If coach Marco Bortolami is to end his reign with a first URC title, his team cannot keep relying on someone to get them out of jail. “I’m not worried but it’s an area where we need to be better,” said Bortolami, who will hand the top job to the club’s Scottish defence coach Calum MacRae in the summer.
Umaga has a complex yet clear role in the team: he might start at fly-half or full-back, come on as substitute in one of those positions then switch to another, or even play centre. “I’ve accepted the role,” he says. “That’s what the team needs. It’s very different to Wasps, where I was the starting 10. I’m battling it out with Tommy [Albornoz]. I’ve learned to enjoy it and it’s a chance to be on the pitch in two positions.”
Recent weeks have been typical. Against Cardiff and at Castres, Umaga stood in briefly for Albornoz early in the second half before replacing Rhyno Smith at full-back. With Albornoz missing in Johannesburg, Umaga took the No 10 role between Alessandro Garbisi at scrum-half and the world-class centre pairing of Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello.
“We practise it a lot, knowing that one of us is going to move around a lot in the backline,” says Umaga. “I don’t even think about it because, in the moment, I know what happens. We’re all used to it. When the team is announced in training, the coach will say: ‘If he goes down, you go there; if he goes down, you go there.’”
When Benetton’s extravagant backline clicks, it is a joy to behold. With Brex and Menoncello inside bulldozing winger Paolo Odogwu on the left and exhilarating Ignacio Mendy on the right, Benetton are lethal when Umaga, Andy Uren or Albornoz get the ball wide.
Umaga, who won his only England cap under Eddie Jones four years ago, is part of a multicultural squad at Benetton. There are 24 Italy internationals, seven from Argentina, plus Kiwis, Tongans, South Africans, a Fijian and Zimbabwean. A few of the squad’s international players have deep roots in the area.
Three Benetton wingers raised in England now represent Italy. Louis Lynagh, who started his career at Harlequins, was born in Treviso to a Venetian mother when his famous father Michael was starring for Benetton. Matt Gallagher, whose father, John, won the Rugby World Cup with New Zealand, qualifies thanks to his maternal grandmother, who lives in the Dolomites. And Paolo Odogwu, who grew up in the Midlands, represents Italy thanks to his half-Italian father Stefano.
Lynagh, Odogwu and Gallagher have all benefited from their Italian roots, but the language barrier has been tougher for Umaga. “My Italian is OK,” he says. “I know enough to get by. I understand what’s going on in meetings and what the lads are saying – unless they’re talking in dialect and then it’s very difficult. I’m trying to speak more Italian in meetings and on the pitch, but the boys just reply back in English.”
Umaga has also had to adjust to the unique demands of the URC. In the final six weeks of the regular season, Benetton have fixtures in Italy, France, South Africa and Ireland. “If we leave for three days or four days, it’s difficult, especially for us foreigners as our partners are on their own,” says Umaga. “The travel to South Africa is not great but I enjoy the time with the lads. I’ve grown to like the experiences. You don’t get to do that in the Prem.”
With one year left of his three-year contract, does another chapter beckon elsewhere? “Being English and growing up in the Premiership, that attracts you,” he says. “But the way rugby is at the moment, jobs are quite hard to come by. Whatever happens, we’ve enjoyed our time here. Having my son changes my whole perspective on things. Before him, we found the pace of life so much slower. You’d ring someone up and they’d say ‘no, we’re not working today, ring back tomorrow’. OK! Having a young family made us accept that and learn to enjoy it.”
Having played rugby league as a junior when his dad, the former Halifax star Mike, was coaching Coventry RFC, could a code-switch be on the cards for the Brisbane Broncos fan? “When Wasps went into administration there was some interest from league clubs. I watch a lot of NRL and have big respect for them. I show our coaches, ‘Look at the shape the league guys are running,’ and we try to run more of them now. I’ve always said I’d love to play league at some point, but the older you get the harder it is to switch.”
Umaga will be 29 by the time his contract ends next year, but with Wigan-bound Christian Wade switching codes at 34, a move to Super League is not out of the question. After all, the Lions of Treviso beat the Lions of Johannesburg comfortably on Saturday despite playing a quarter of the game with 13 men. No wonder Umaga looked totally unfazed.
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