Zebre boosted by return of Italian Internationals for Connacht trip
Zebre Rugby spent the week in Ireland near Cork, the town where head coach Michael Bradley was born.
The fixture list sees Zebre playing two straight away games in Ireland: last Saturday in Limerick against Munster and tomorrow in Galway against Connacht.
It will be a special day for Bradley, the former Irish international scrum-half who coached the black & green franchise for seven years from 2003 to 2010 before moving to the national team of Georgia.
Zebre’s last win in the competition came against Connacht; 24-10 in Parma on December 2, 2017. That win paired with the one of April 2017 in the Round 3 last season.
On that day the home side beat the Guinness PRO12 reigning champions 25-22 in the re-scheduled Round 3 match, postponed due to a thunderstorm in September 2016 in at Stadio Lanfranchi.
For this important fixture, the coaching staff of the Parma based franchise could count on the return of three Italian internationals who were capped by Italy for last Saturday’s match at the Aviva Stadium against Ireland in the second round of the Natwest Six Nations.
Fly-half Canna, flanker Mbandà and hooker Fabiani are selected as starters along with three other internationals who will head to Rome on Sunday to Italy’s training camp ahead of the third round of the competition: Bisegni, Biagi and Giammarioli.
There will be a total of five changes: the other in the back line is Rory Parata, one of the two former Connacht player who will face their former side tomorrow: the other is Galway born fullback Gaffney.
In the pack the good news is that James Tucker, the New Zealander lock, will be back in action after his recovery from the injury that occurred in his overall Guinness PRO14 debut back in November.
On the bench the only new face is the tight-head prop Chistolini, ready to earn his 98th official cap with Zebre trailing Palazzani at 100 and De Marchi at 107 in this special chart.
Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Friday, February 16 match at the Sportsground in Galway (Ireland) for the 15th round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Irish side of Connacht. Kick off at 7.35 pm local time:
15 Ciaran Gaffney
14 Gabriele Di Giulio*
13 Giulio Bisegni
12 Faialaga Afamasaga
11 Rory Parata
10 Carlo Canna
9 Guglielmo Palazzani
8 Renato Giammarioli*
7 Maxime Mbandà
6 Johan Meyer
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 James Tucker
3 Eduardo Bello
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Cruze Ah-Nau
Replacements :
16 Tommaso D’Apice*
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Dario Chistolini
19 David Sisi
20 Derick Minnie
21 Riccardo Raffaele*
22 Serafin Bordoli
23 Giovanbattista Venditti*
Coach. Michael Bradley
Not available for selection due to injury: Andrea Manici*, Edoardo Padovani*, Sami Panico Not available for selection due to Italy’s games in the Six Nations: Mattia Bellini, Tommaso Boni*, Tommaso Castello, Andrea Lovotti*, Matteo Minozzi*, Marcello Violi*
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy “Ivan Francescato” of Parma
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scottish Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Lloyd Linton and Bob Nevins (Scottish Rugby Union)
TMO: Andy McMenemy (Scottish Rugby Union)
Live streaming coverage in Italy on Eurosport Player. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro14rugby.org and on Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #CONvZEB
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