International centre Garcia is not selected and leaves his place to the other international Venditti who returns for the Parma based outfit after scoring the only try of last Saturday's historical win for Italy against Ireland. The speedy duo Sinoti-Sarto is confirmed in the back three, along with the fullback Benettin. In the halves Chillon and Buso are paired together.
In the front row the Irish prop Ryan is drafted in along with Aguero while the hooker will be Festuccia with his 13th appereace in the RaboDirect PRO12. In the second row Zebre Rugby's ambassador Marco Bortolami is ruled out of the game with a light injury after gaining 4 competitive starts. His number 5 shirt is taken by Sole who switches from the back row. He will pair with Italian international Geldenhuys. The Italian pack is completed by the South African Van Schalkwyk at number 8 while either side of him will be flankers Caffini and Bergamasco, skipper of the Zebre tomorrow night for the third time.
Bergamasco, 93 caps with Italy, spoke this morning about the tomorrow game with the Italian press :"We surely put on the field our best to face this hard challenge. We need our best ever performance to obtain our goal : the first victory of the season that we miss by inches in the last appearances. We will maintain the same spirit and competitive approach we had before the international games' stop. The Scarlets have a great roster and a very intelligent way of play, absolutely effective with their backs. We must take the maximum possession not to give the welsh side clean opportunity to counter attack us in the open space with turn-overs. Less mistakes and more possession, this is our target".
Here's Zebre Rugby line-up for Friday night game at the Stadio XXV Aprile in Parma facing the Scarlets in the 18th Round of the RaboDirect PRO12 :
15 Alberto BENETTIN*
14 Leonardo SARTO*
13 Matteo PRATICHETTI
12 Giovanbattista VENDITTI
11 Sinoti SINOTI
10 Paolo BUSO
9 Alberto CHILLON*
8 Andries VAN SCHALKWYK
7 Mauro BERGAMASCO
6 Emiliano CAFFINI*
5 Josh SOLE
4 Quintin GELDENHUYS
3 David RYAN
2 Carlo FESTUCCIA
1 Matias AGUERO
Replacements :
16 Andrea MANICI*
17 Andrea DE MARCHI
18 Luciano LEIBSON
19 Michael VAN VUREN
20 Filippo CRISTIANO
21 Tito TEBALDI
22 Luciano ORQUERA
23 Roberto QUARTAROLI*
Coach. Christian GAJAN
* Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Not available for selection through injury : Marco BORTOLAMI, Nicola CATTINA, Filippo CAZZOLA*, Carlo FAZZARI*, Daniel HALANGAHU, Luca REDOLFINI.
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 45th competition game) 2nd with Zebre after the Parma game of Heineken Cup Vs Biarritz
Assistant Referees: Stefano Pennè, Stefano Roscini (both FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Alberto Recaldini (FIR)
TMO: Carlo Damasco (FIR)
Live on Sportitalia 1 in Italy
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