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Some seasons are measured in trophies, others in inches gained. For Marcos Gallorini his first real professional campaign was the latter: two and a half months without a single appearance, then a rise that carried him to the best moments of Benetton’s year.
The spell in the stands
Used to playing almost every week with the Under-20s, Gallorini found himself for the first time being told he wouldn’t play that week. Nor the next. A long, unfamiliar drought that could have switched him off. He used it the other way round: as time to work on himself, on and off the pitch.
I played every match as if it were my last.
He faced every chance with that mindset. Not all went well: he remembers a hugely complicated game off the bench, amid yellow cards and men down, in which he wanted the ground to swallow him. But the bad nights, he says, help you grow too.
The turning point: Scarlets, first start
The turning point has a date: 30 January 2026, Benetton-Scarlets, his first start in a Treviso shirt, which ended 20-20. Not his most brilliant display, he admits, but a watershed: from there came confidence, self-belief and steadily growing minutes, closing the year with more than 350 in the senior side.
Before that, the satisfaction of the dominant scrum against Cardiff, with the feeling — at last — that he could do at this level what he does best. And the night of European elimination, played as a starter with experienced teammates sidelined by injury beside him: painful in the result, but another brick of experience.
The finale to remember: Leinster felled at Monigo
Treviso’s season ended with a blow they will remember for a long time: on 26 April Benetton beat reigning champions Leinster 29-26 at Monigo, with a brace from Nicholas Gasperini and the decisive points from Jacob Umaga in the closing stages. Gallorini was part of that final, drawn-out pressure that paved the way for the lead: the sheer delight of a front row taking centre stage when it matters most.
A debut campaign like this — made of the stands, a turnaround and a prestige win — is worth more than the scoreline says. It is the season in which a boy learned to be a professional.
Read also
- Marcos Gallorini, two cultures and one Azzurri dream
- The art of the scrum, by Gallorini: from Under-20 dominance to the wall of the pros
- The Azzurri dream and the queue of props: Gallorini and his friend Gasperini
Watch the full interview on the DanPat Rugby channel and tell us which was, for you, Benetton’s match of the year.
DANPAT Rugby — interviews, stories and analysis from the world of the oval ball.