Zebre Rugby Club make four changes for trip to Connacht
Zebre travel to Ireland for their first official away game of the new Guinness PRO14 season. They face Connacht at the Galway Sportsground in the second round of the tournament.
Both teams are included in Conference A and will therefore face each other again in April 2019 in the second-last round of the competition.
The Parma based franchise arrives at the challenge after the home bonus point win against Southern Kings. Connacht will play their second consecutive home game after last weekend’s defeat against Glasgow Warriors in the final minutes.
George Biagi and his team-mates return to the Sportsground where last February, during the Six Nations 2018 window, they took their first ever success in Ireland, targeting a historic double over the Connacht.
The Galway side is the opponent most faced by Zebre Rugby Club in their Guinness PRO14 history: Scottish referee Linton will referee the 13th official competition clash between the two teams. The Italians won the last three head-to-head matches and come to this clash with a positive streak of four wins in the Guinness PRO14, their longest ever.
The coaching staff has chosen the starting line-up that tomorrow will start the tomorrow’s fixture; compared to seven days ago there are 4 changes in the initial XV, two per unit. In the backs Padovani will start at full-back instead of Minozzi, injured during this season opener against the Southern Kings. The Italian international undergone surgery on his right knee this week in Rome and will face a long recovery after his ACL ligament lesion.
The other new face in Zebre back line is the Italian-Argentine centre De Battista: the former Cornish Pirates captain will make his official debut in the Guinness PRO14 starting with the number 12 jersey. In the pack, the Tongan flanker Tevi will gain his overall European debut while the young tight-head prop Zilocchi gains his first start at his second appearance in the tournament.
Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Saturday, September 8 match at the Sportsground in Galway (Ireland) for the 2nd round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Irish side of Connacht. Kick-off at 5.15 pm local time:
15 Edoardo Padovani*
14 Mattia Bellini
13 Giulio Bisegni
12 Nicolas De Battista
11 Giovanbattista Venditti*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Marcello Violi*
8 Renato Giammarioli*
7 Johan Meyer
6 Matu Tevi
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 David Sisi
3 Giosué Zilocchi*
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Andrea Lovotti*
Replacements:
16 Massimo Ceciliani*
17 Daniele Rimpelli*
18 Roberto Tenga
19 Apisai Tauyavuca
20 Jimmy Tuivaiti
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Francois Brummer
23 Tommaso Boni*
Coach. Michael Bradley
Not available for selection due to injury: Paula Balekana, Eduardo Bello, Tommaso Castello, Gabriele Di Giulio*, Giovanni Licata*, Luhandre Luus*, Maxime Mbandà*, Matteo Minozzi*
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy “Ivan Francescato” of Parma
Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scottish Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Finlay Brown (Scottish Rugby Union) and John Carvill (Irish Rugby Football Union)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Irish Rugby Football 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 Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #CONvZEB.
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