Ten Italian internationals return to boost Zebre

Oct 25 • General News, Guinness Pro14 • 1272 Views • Comments Off on Ten Italian internationals return to boost Zebre

Zebre are ready to return to GUINNESS PRO14 action in front of the home crowd tomorrow night.

Finishing the EPCR Challenge Cup window with the victory over Bristol Bears, Tommaso Castello and his teammates are back in action hosting Edinburgh in the 7th round of the tournament.

The challenge with the Scots, who are included in Conference B, will be the only one of the season.

The encounter comes 12 months after the last match played in Edinburgh in October 2017, which ended with a narrow 16-15 for the hosts.

Zebre will play their fourth home game of the Guinness PRO14, looking for their third win after overcomin Southern Kings and Cardiff Blues.

In the five previous meetings in Parma, Zebre have three wins over the Scots.

There are only three changes compared to last Saturday’s EPCR Challenge Cup game. Two changes are made in the starting XV, one in each unit.

In the pack, there is a first ever call for the young flanker Jacopo Bianchi, a permit player from the Italian main league side Fiamme Oro Rugby.

The former U20 Italian international will make his debut in the Guinness PRO14 wearing the Zebre jersey. The other new face if the one of Palazzani: the Italian international scrum-half will start and his colleague Raffaele will sit on the bench.

In total there are 10 Italian internationals in the starting line-up; 11 in total in the Zebre’s game list which can also count on the young tight-head prop Zilocchi

Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Friday, October 26 match at the Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma (Italy) for the 7th round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Scottish side of Edinburgh. Kick-off at 8 pm local time (7 pm in the UK & Ireland):

15 Francois Brummer

14 Mattia Bellini

13 Giulio Bisegni

12 Tommaso Castello (cap)

11 Gabriele Di Giulio*

10 Carlo Canna

9 Guglielmo Palazzani

8 Renato Giammarioli*

7 Johan Meyer

6 Jacopo Bianchi* (permit player from the Italian side of Fiamme Oro Rugby)

5 George Biagi

4 David Sisi

3 Dario Chistolini

2 Oliviero Fabiani

1 Andrea Lovotti*

Replacements:

16 Luhandre Luus*

17 Daniele Rimpelli*

18 Giosué Zilocchi*

19 Leonard Krumov*

20 Apisai Tauyavuca

21 Riccardo Raffaele*

22 Tommaso Boni*

23 Paula Balekana

Head Coach: Michael Bradley

Not available for selection due to injury: Massimo Ceciliani*, Giovanni Licata*, Maxime Mbandà*, Matteo Minozzi*, Edoardo Padovani*, Marcello Violi*

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

Referee: Andrew Brace(Irish Rugby Football Union)

Assistant Referees: Sean Gallagher (Irish Rugby Football Union) e Andrea Piardi (Federazione Italiana Rugby)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (Federazione Italiana Rugby)

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 Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #ZEBvEDI.