Zebre Rugby Club team to face Cardiff Blues

Nov 3 • General News • 1996 Views • Comments Off on Zebre Rugby Club team to face Cardiff Blues

Zebre Rugby Club travel to face Cardiff Blues in round 8 of the Guinness PRO14.

Awaiting Zebre at Cardiff Arms Park will be the Blues, looking to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat in the Welsh derby against the Scarlets.

Zebre enter the game following narrow 24-23 defeat at Stadio Lanfranchi against the Toyota Cheetahs. Tomorrow’s encounter sees two Conference A teams aiming to get points to climb the table.

After seven rounds, the table sees four teams with two wins and five defeats.

Zebre and Connacht are currently joint fourth place with 12 points, followed by the Ospreys with 11 with Cardiff Blues with 10. Head coach Michael Bradley confirms almost all the 23 players selected against the Cheetahs on Saturday in Parma, with just the one change.

On the wing comes Di Giulio with Italian international Bellini moving to centre. In total there are 9 internationals on the Zebre team sheet; seven starters and two forwards Chistolini and Giammarioli ready to take over from the bench.

Saturday November 4th could be a milestone day for Andrea De Marchi. If the loose-head prop of Montebelluna gets the opportunity to come off the bench at the Arms Park, he would become the first player in Zebre’s history to reach 100 official games since the foundation of the club back in December 1973. De Marchi is one of the few players who has been with Zebre from the start as they joined the Guinness PRO14. He is currently in his sixth season in Parma.

The synthetic pitch of Cardiff, a theatre of epic gamesadjoining Millenium Stadium, saw Zebre’s first ever away victory. Back in September 2013 Zebre beat the Blues 30-25 with three tries from Mauro Bergamasco, David Odiete and Brendon Leonard.

Here’s Zebre Rugby Club line-up for Saturday, November 4 match at BT Arms Park in Cardiff (Wales) for the 8th round of the Guinness PRO14 against Welsh side of the Cardiff Blues. Kick off at 7.35 pm local time:

15 Matteo Minozzi*

14 Giulio Bisegni

13 Mattia Bellini

12 Tommaso Castello (cap)

11 Gabriele Di Giulio*

10 Carlo Canna

9 Marcello Violi*

8 Derick Minnie

7 Johan Meyer

6 Giovanni Licata* (permit player from Fiamme Oro Rugby)

5 Valerio Bernabò

4 Leonard Krumow*

3 Eduardo Bello

2 Oliviero Fabiani

1 Sami Panico

Replacements :

16 Luhandre Luus*

17 Andrea De Marchi

18 Dario Chistolini

19 Jacopo Sarto

20 Renato Giammarioli*

21 Guglielmo Palazzani

22 Serafin Bordoli

23 Ciaran Gaffney

Coach. Michael Bradley

Not available for selection due to injury: George Biagi, Tommaso D’Apice*, Andrea Manici*, Maxime Mbandà*, David Sisi

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

Referee: Sean Gallagher (Irish Rugby Football Union)

Assistant Referees: David Wilkinson (Irish Rugby Football Union) and Mike English (Welsh Rugby Union) TMO: Neil Hennessey (Welsh 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 #CBLvZEB