Zebre Team Announcement

Tomorrow evening at 6.30 PM, the Italian franchise will be hosted by the Scarlets at the Parc Y Scarlets. The white & black boys score against the welsh opponents this season is in perfect balance : 2 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws. One draw was against the side of head coach Simon Easterby in Parma in the first leg due in late October. Only a late kick during the injury time by the welsh international Priestland fixed the score at 16-16, leaving a bitter taste in the Italian North-West franchise supporters.

The aim of skipper Geldenhuys and his team mates will be to repeat the good performance of the Parma clash, trying to get precious points for their table in a crucial ranking for all 12 the teams competing in the RaboDirect PRO12 to clinch a spot in the new main European Cup of the next season. The European Rugby Champions Cup will qualify 20 teams but only 7 from the PRO12 with at least one participant per country.

Also yesterday, the head coach Andrea Cavinato, during his meeting with the press, has emphasized how the European objectives have given strength to the Scarlets -now excluded from the playoffs race in the PRO12- but well capable of winning 4 games in a row in front of their home crowd in the fortress of the Parc Y Scarlets :"Our seasonal target was to grow up and grab at least 20 points: the goal was achieved. Now we only have the serenity to improve performance and grow next year".

The former U20 national team, Rugby Calvisano and Rugby Parma coach has got the recipe for his Zebre to continue their progress: "We are not yet cynical on the attack while sometimes we commit stupid penalties on defense avoid easy points to our opponents. The next season we'll have to remove these negative aspects and find better solutions: faster game pace than this year and offensive ability to score tries. We scored well this season, but much less than what we had to. We grew up in defense but the tries conceded against the Dragons in last fixture were too easy".

Compared to the last game played and a draw against the Dragons 25-25 at the Stadio XXV Aprile in Parma, some players who left the pitch prematurely did not recover from their injuries while others have been rested before the final rush that will see Cavinato's side host Edinburgh (Sat 19 April) and Ospreys (Thursday 1 May) in the last two sesonal games in front of the home crowd .

Here's Zebre line-up for Saturday 12 April 2014 at Parc Y Scarlets in Llanelli (Wales) for the 19th round of the RaboDirect PRO12 against the Scarlets. Kick off at 6.30 pm local time :

15 David ODIETE*
14 Giovanbattista VENDITTI*
13 Roberto QUARTAROLI*
12 Gonzalo GARCIA
11 Giulio TONIOLATTI
10 Tommaso IANNONE*
9 Brendon LEONARD
8 Samuela VUNISA
7 Filippo CRISTIANO
6 Filippo FERRARINI*
5 George BIAGI
4 Quintin GELDENHUYS (cap)
3 Dario CHISTOLINI
2 Andrea MANICI*
1 Salvatore PERUGINI

Replacements :

16 Davide GIAZZON
17 Andrea DE MARCHI
18 Luca REDOLFINI
19 Emiliano CAFFINI*
20 Andries VAN SCHALKWYK
21 Guglielmo PALAZZANI
22 Luciano ORQUERA
23 Ruggero TREVISAN*

Coach. Andrea CAVINATO

Not available for selection due to injury: Mauro BERGAMASCO, Marco BORTOLAMI, Paolo BUSO, Nicola CATTINA, Matteo PRATICHETTI, Kameli RATUVOU, Leonardo SARTO*

Referee: Andrew McMenemy (Irish Rugby Football Union) at his 28th competition game, 8th overall with Zebre in the Rabodirect PRO12
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies e Chris Williams (both Wales Rugby Union)
TMO: Tim Hayes (Wales Rugby Union)

Delayed tv coverage in Italy on Mediaset Italia 2 at 11.55 PM. Live score text coverage on www.rabodirectpro12.com/live.