DanPat Rugby, a year at full throttle: review and promises

Regular viewers will have noticed: over the past month the daily output of DanPat Rugby has thinned out. No detailed analysis of Italy, Benetton or the URC, no podcast with Cristian; just the Springboks-All Blacks live watchalongs and the interviews recorded at the Gruppo Bevanda Malamocco anniversary. In early September Danpat decided to explain why in person, without a script, in a twenty-minute conversation that is part review, part confession.

The starting point is a date. Almost a year has passed since the video in which he announced a life change: moving back to Italy after nearly fifteen years abroad, to turn the passion that has driven the channel since 2021 into something bigger. Twelve months on, the question is simple: how did it go?

The number that sums up the year: 8,000

Last week, during the first Springboks-All Blacks Test, DanPat Rugby passed 8,000 subscribers. It is the most visible figure of a season Danpat describes as lived “at 300 km/h”, even though he admits the time to watch rugby around the clock, as in the early days, simply wasn’t there anymore. “Luckily,” he adds: things evolve.

In place of the marathons in front of a screen came a list of firsts that no statistic captures as well as a plain list does.

The firsts of an unrepeatable season

• Italy’s women up close: a full day with the Azzurre, told in a vlog.
• Commentary from the stadium: for the first time the channel called an Italy match live, and the night could not have been better chosen. In Udine Italy beat Australia 26-19 (8 November 2025); then Genoa, and the 34-19 over Chile on 22 November, a trip Danpat remembers above all for the people he met.
• Serie A Elite Show: the format built with Lega Rugby, which many viewers enjoyed. Whether it returns is still an open decision.
• The Wales trip: three days with the community for the Six Nations. Italy lost in Cardiff (31-17, 14 March), the Under-20s won in Newport (20-13, the day after), but what lingers is the time spent together.
• The tournament and the local clubs: the Gilbert Touch Rugby Cup and the “I’ll come and watch you play” format, with visits to clubs such as San Marco and Silea.
• Benetton in Europe, from pitchside: first the studio sofa, then live commentary from the touchline in the two home Challenge Cup ties. The 38-35 over Cardiff in the round of 16, then the epic 41-44 against Exeter Chiefs in the quarter-final: a defeat, but one nobody will forget.

Lined up like this, these episodes tell the story of a year the whole team lived with what Danpat calls “truly significant” intensity. Then there are the small stories: the baggage handler on an airport apron in Lithuania who stopped him with a “hi Danpat, I follow you”, or Pietro, met in Barcelona while working a cloakroom at a trade fair and now a commentator for DanPat Calcio. Put passion and ideas at the service of others, he says, and YouTube makes special things happen.

What did Danpat lose this year?

Two things, by his own admission: the daily relationship with the community and the time to go deep. The Telegram group used to be livelier, the members-only content never found real continuity. And where he once watched four or five matches a day, now, between the office and a team to run, a typical week comes down to Benetton, Zebre, Italy and little else.

It is not a complaint, it is a diagnosis. The image he uses is the actor who skips a line on stage: the audience doesn’t even notice, but he feels it. And this is where the video changes gear, from review to promises.

“On some things we took a step back to get a running start.”

The promises for the new season

The first is to rebuild the relationship with the community, which Danpat calls fundamental “beyond the business project”. The second is a different way of managing time, to return to the deeper, more detailed analysis that made the channel grow. The third is an editorial plan he is writing right now, with an explicit request: tell him what you want to see. Anyone who remembers suggestions that never materialised has a point, he admits; but this was the year of foundations, of relaunching the project.

There is a practical change too: premium content moves from Patreon to the channel membership, where all members-only material will live from now on.

The closing words go to those who were there from the start, the first-hour Patreon supporters and the people he has met “again and again” over the years, whom Danpat calls the foundations of the project. With one conviction, stated with respect for the other creators he works with: this is becoming the reference community of Italian rugby. And one teaser: this is a special year, “and anyone who knows rugby knows why”. From Monday, it starts again.

Read also

• What’s behind DanPat Rugby: Treviso, the clubs, the new website
• Scotland 2027: the DanPat community trip to Murrayfield
• Checchinato and the 2000 jersey that changed Italian rugby
• Springboks 33-26 All Blacks: series level at 1-1
• The channel’s video archive

If you are part of this community, or want to be, subscribe to the DanPat Rugby YouTube channel and tell us in the comments what you want to see this season: the editorial plan is written with you too.

DANPAT Rugby — rugby told from pitchside, through interviews, analysis and oval passion.