Padovani and Parata to make seasonal debut for Zebre Rugby Club

Jan 5 • General News, Guinness Pro14 • 1663 Views • Comments Off on Padovani and Parata to make seasonal debut for Zebre Rugby Club

The Parma rugby fans are ready to re-embrace their Zebre Rugby tomorrow for the first game of the 2018.

Just seven days after the last home game, the Parma based franchise will host the Scottish side Glasgow Warriors in the 13th round of the Guinness PRO14.

Both teams are included in conference A which sees the XV of coach Rennie leading the group with 53 points with 11 wins over 12 games. Zebre – sixth with 17 points – chase their fourth win of the season in the tournament after the home wins against Ulster and Connacht and the away one in South Africa against the Southern Kings.

For the encounter against an opponent never defeated in the previous 10 meetings, the Italian coaching staff has decided five changes in the starting line-up compared to the December 30 derby narrowly lost against Benetton Rugby.

Three are in the back line that will see the seasonal debut for Edoardo Padovani – returning to Italy after the experience in France at Toulon – and the overall club debut for Rory Parata, the young Irish utility-back last arrived in the Italian roster. The third news is Giovanbattista Venditti who will play at wing recovering from the injury suffered in mid-December in Gloucester.

The forward unit re-embrace flanker Johan Meyer – sent off in Treviso two weeks ago – while the number 2 jersey will be on the shoulders of Tommaso D’Apice.

Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Saturday, January 6 match at Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma (Italy) for the 13rd round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Scottish side of the Glasgow Warriors. Kick off at 4.30 pm local time:

15 Edoardo Padovani*
14 Rory Parata
13 Giulio Bisegni
12 Tommaso Castello (cap)
11 Giovanbattista Venditti*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Marcello Violi*
8 Renato Giammarioli*
7 Johan Meyer
6 Maxime Mbandà*
5 George Biagi
4 David Sisi
3 Eduardo Bello
2 Tommaso D’Apice*
1 Andrea Lovotti*

Replacements :

16 Luhandre Luus*
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Roberto Tenga
19 Valerio Bernabò
20 Derick Minnie
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Maicol Azzolini*
23 Ciaran Gaffney

Coach. Michael Bradley

Not available for selection due to injury: Mattia Bellini, Dario Chistolini, Leonard Krumov*, Andrea Manici*, Sami Panico, James Tucker,

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

Referee: Andrew Brace (Irish Rugby Football Union)
Assistant Referees: Eddie Hogan-O’Connell (Irish Rugby Football Union) e Manuel Bottino (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
TMO: Brian MacNiece (Irish Rugby Football Union)

Live tv coverage in Italy on Eurosport 2. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro14rugby.org and on Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #ZEBvGLA