Lock Biagi becomes the latest Zebre Rugby Club centurion
Zebre ended their week of training in South Africa this morning with the teams run at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein ahead of Saturday’s clash against Toyota Cheetahs.
In the 14th round of the Guinness PRO14, Zebre will compete in the Free State capital against the Cheetahs, also included in Conference A of the competition.
The return fixture against the Toyota Cheetahs is played just three weeks after the first leg won in Parma by Franco Smith’s side on January 6th.
Fly-half Carlo Canna flew with his teammates to South Africa to attend Zebre’s only game in the Southern Hemisphere this season.
There are two permit players invited for the encounter: Back row Jacopo Bianchi, who played inthe first encounter in Parma, and loose-head prop Danilo Fischetti.
The Rome born prop will make his Zebre and Guinness PRO14 debut after playing in the August friendly in France against Grenoble.
It will be a special match for captain George Biagi. The lock will earn his 100th official cap, becoming the fifth centurion at the club after De Marchi, Palazzani, Chistolini and Fabiani.
There will be seven changes in the starting line-up selected by coach Bradley.
South African Brummer will start at full back, while Boni will remain in the centre.
In the pack, the two props will be Bello and Rimpelli. In the second row, Ortis will pair with Biagi, while the back row forwards include Bianchi, who will play at flanker at the side of number 8 Licata.
On the bench, in addition to Fischetti, Fijian backrower Brown is joined by Azzolini, Raffaele and Venditti.
Zebre Rugby Club
15 Francois Brummer
14 Paula Balekana
13 James Elliott
12 Tommaso Boni*
11 Gabriele Di Giulio*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Joshua Renton
8 Giovanni Licata*
7 Johan Meyer
6 Iacopo Bianchi* (permit player from Fiamme Oro Rugby)
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Samuele Ortis*
3 Eduardo Bello
2 Luhandre Luus*
1 Daniele Rimpelli*
Replacements:
16 Massimo Ceciliani*
17 Danilo Fischetti* (permit player from Rugby Calvisano)
18 Dario Chistolini
19 Apisai Tauyavuca
20 James Brown
21 Riccardo Raffaele*
22 Maicol Azzolini*
23 Giovanbattista Venditti*
Head Coach: Michael Bradley
Not available for selection due to injury: Cruze Ah-Nau, Mattia Bellini, Giulio Bisegni, Oliviero Fabiani, Renato Giammarioli*, Leonard Krumov*, Matteo Minozzi*, Marcello Violi*
Capped by Italy for the Guinness Six Nations: Tommaso Castello, Maxime Mbandà*, Andrea Lovotti*, Edoardo Padovani*, Guglielmo Palazzani, David Sisi, Jimmy Tuivaiti, Giosué Zilocchi*
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union National Academy “Ivan Francescato”
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Welsh Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Paul Mente and Ben Crouse(South African Rugby Union)
TMO: Johan Greeff (South African Rugby Union)
Live coverage of the game in Italy on live streaming on DAZN on www.dazn.com.
Live text coverage of the game on www.pro14rugby.org and on the Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #CHEvZEB
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