José Pinto (rugby union) to an Italian team soon after joining Benetton Treviso for the remainder of the 2007/2008 season. He joined Rugby Roma Olimpic in the off-season for the 2008/2009 season. José Pinto has 57 caps for Portugal, since 2001, with 3 tries, 2 conversion and 1 penalty, 20 points in aggregate. José Pinto (rugby union) José Manuel Duarte Pinto Neves (born 5 February 1981, in Lisbon) is a Portuguese rugby union player. He plays as a scrum-half and fullback. He's graduated in Medicine. José Pinto was a leading name for Direito, from 1999/2000 until 2006/2007. After the 2007 Rugby World Cup finals
Rugby union in Italy rugby union. In the 1960s the Italian Rugby Union had their rival sport, rugby league, hampered by threatening to ban rugby league players from playing rugby union for life. In the 1980s, a peculiar set of economic circumstances arose, which helped bolster the game further. In an effort to promote the game, sinking money into rugby became virtually tax-free, and large amounts of sponsorship money went into the game, from companies as large as Benetton which set up their own club sides. Benetton Treviso for example was able to use this money to produce a dramatic rise in standards. Players