Three Italian Internationals return for Zebre against Glasgow Warriors

Mar 22 • General News, Guinness Pro14 • 1128 Views • Comments Off on Three Italian Internationals return for Zebre against Glasgow Warriors

After almost a month since the last match played in Parma at the end of February, Zebre return to action tomorrow night in the Guinness PRO14.

With the conclusion of the Six Nations 2018 that has seen fourteen players of the franchise wearing the Italian jersey, the season re-starts from Scotland.

Glasgow Warriors, leader of conference A which includes Zebre, are awaiting the Italians in the 18th round of the competition.

The return fixture is played two months from the first leg that saw the Warriors win at Stadio Lanfranchi 40-20 on January 6th.

Coach Bradley has opted for three changes in the starting line-up. The backs unit sees the return of Padovani who will start at fullback while Italian international Canna will wear the number 10 jersey.

In the pack instead the only news is that of tight-head prop Bello, who comes back into selection forming a front row line along with Ah-Nau and Fabiani at hooker.

There will be three internationals taking part in the away trip who were on the Stadio Olimpico pitch in Rome last Saturday in the 27-29 defeat against Scotland: the third one will be the scrum-half Palazzani, also captain of his side for the second time.

Zebre have never beaten the Scots in the previous 11 encounters; in the five trips to Glasgow only one point has been gained by the visitors in the 22-19 loss of the 2012/13 season.

In the standings, with five rounds remaining, Zebre have got 22 points due to 4 wins: the last one achieved in Galway in the last away game.

The Italians chase the Ospreys at 30 points, with the clash to be re-arranged in Parma later in April.

Here’s the Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Friday, March 23 match at the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow (Scotland) for the 18th round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Scottish side of the Glasgow Warriors. Kick off at 7.35 pm local time:

15 Edoardo Padovani*
14 Gabriele Di Giulio*
13 Serafin Bordoli
12 Faialaga Afamasaga
11 Giovanbattista Venditti*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Guglielmo Palazzani (cap)

8 James Tucker
7 Johan Meyer
6 Derick Minnie*
5 Leonard Krumov
4 David Sisi
3 Eduardo Bello
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Cruze Ah-Nau

Replacements :
16 Tommaso D’Apice*
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Roberto Tenga
19 Valerio Bernabò
20 Jacopo Sarto
21 Riccardo Raffaele*
22 Maicol Azzolini*
23 Rory Parata

Coach. Michael Bradley

Not available for selection due to injury: George Biagi, Ciaran Gaffney, Renato Giammarioli*, Luhandre Luus*, Andrea Manici*, Maxime Mbandà

*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy “Ivan Francescato” of Parma

Referee: Craig Evans (Welsh Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Ian Davies and Adam Jones (Welsh Rugby Union)

No tv coverage for the game. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro14rugby.org and on Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #GLAvZEB