Zebre Rugby Club make three changes for Benetton Rugby clash

Dec 28 • General News, Guinness Pro14 • 1078 Views • Comments Off on Zebre Rugby Club make three changes for Benetton Rugby clash

The Lanfranchi Stadium in Parma hosted the Zebre captain’s run ahead of the derby clash with Benetton Rugby.
Tommaso Castello and his teammates face Benetton Rugby in the second of the three Italian derbies of the season in the Guinness PRO14.
The match at the Monigo Stadium, will be the second match between the two sides within 6 days.
The XV of coach Bradley is looking for the revenge after a 10-8 defeat in Parma.
They’ll be back in action on the field where the Zebre claimed their last away win in the competition.
The Zebre technical staff opted for three changes in the starting XV compared to the line-up fielded on December 23rd.
Two changes in the forward unit where hooker Luus will start instead of Fabiani – injured in Parma during the first half of the match against Benetton – Fijian flanker Tauyavuca will start at number 7.
The last change is in the halves: alongside Canna will play New Zealand scrum-half Renton in his first start in the competition.
Castello will lead his Zebre for the 26th time in an official competition, third in the special standings of the captains of the franchise behind the two locks Bortolami (49 now Benetton line-outs coach) and Biagi (39). The Genoa-born centre in the first leg was the player on the field with more carries -17- while he was third in the defenders’ beaten chart with 4, behind the Italian national team teammate Hayward (6) and the teammate centre Bisegni with 5.
On the bench Italian international Tuivaiti returns, recovering after an injury to the ribs suffered on November 25 against Munster in Parma.
James Brown is set for his debut with the Zebre Rugby Club jersey from the bench, after arriving in Parma in mid-November from Suva Rugby in Fiji.
Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Saturday, December 29 match at the Stadio Monigo in Treviso (Italy) for the 12nd round of the Guinness PRO14 against the Italian side of Benetton Rugby. Kick-off at 3 pm local time:

15 Edoardo Padovani*
14 Paula Balekana
13 Giulio Bisegni
12 Tommaso Castello (cap)
11 James Elliott
10 Carlo Canna
9 Joshua Renton
8 Renato Giammarioli*
7 Apisai Tauyavuca
6 Maxime Mbandà*
5 George Biagi
4 David Sisi
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Luhandre Luus
1 Andrea Lovotti

Replacements:
16 Massimo Ceciliani*
17 Daniele Rimpelli*
18 Eduardo Bello
19 Samuele Ortis*
20 Jimmy Tuivaiti
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Francois Brummer
23 James Brown

Head Coach: Michael Bradley
Not available for selection due to injury: Mattia Bellini, Oliviero Fabiani, Giovanni Licata*, Johan Meyer, Matteo Minozzi*, Marcello Violi*
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union National Academy “Ivan Francescato”
Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scottish Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Sam Grove-White (Scottish Rugby Union) e Matteo Liperini (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
TMO: Stefano Penné (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 #BENvZEB