Marco Bortolami (born 12th of June 1980) is an Italian rugby union player.
Bortalami began his playing career with Padova, making his debut in the second row aged just 18. He was soon made captain of Italy's Under-21 side, before making his full international debut against Namibia in 2001. At the age of 22, Bortalami was made Italy's youngest ever captain.
In his first-ever World Cup start - against Tonga in 2003 - he picked up an injury and missed the decisive match against Wales, which saw the Azzurri eliminated from the competition.
After impressing in the 2004 Six Nations championship, he was once again awarded the captaincy for the 2005 summer tour of Japan. After the tour he joined French club Narbonne.
It used to be an article of faith that Gloucester forwards were born within the sound of the city's cathedral bells and that they served a brutal apprenticeship at the bottom of athousand rucks in the Forest of Dean, where impenetrable mists ensured the referee could not see who was kicking whom.
MarcoBortolami, on the other hand, was born within walking distance of the Cap-pella Scrovegni in Padova, where the only scrums were those surrounding the world- renowned frescos by Giotto.
Dean Ryan, who signed Bortolami from the fair-to-middling French club Narbonne after tracking him for the best part of a year, is not given to dispensing praise on a lavish scale, as the likes of Ryan Lamb and Anthony Allen have discovered of late, but on this particular subject, there is no holding him.
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