Benetton Rugby Team Announcement

No changes to the backs to the side that defeated the Newport Gwent Dragons last week, but worth mentioning is the hundredth appearance in white and green for Tobias Botes.

The changes apply only to the front five, with Matteo Muccignat playing at loose head prop and locks Marco Fuser and Valerio Bernabò.

Back on the bench isDean Budd, absent since the Parma game against Zebre of the 4th January. If he comes off the bench, Brendan Williams will reach cap number 249 with Benetton Treviso, overtaking Massimiliano Perziano as the sixth player with the highest number of caps ever.

Injured players: Francesco Minto, Luca Morisi, Simone Favaro, Alessandro Zanni, Franco Sbaraglini, Michele Rizzo, Edoardo Gori, Alberto De Marchi, Manoa Vosawai, Corniel Van Zyl

The game will be played at 5 pm GMT, 6 pm in Italy, with game direction entrusted to the Scottish Paterson and will be shown deferred on Italia 2 on Saturday 19th at 17:35.

Starting line-up:

15 Luke McLean
14 Ludovico Nitoglia
13 Michele Campagnaro
12 Christian Loamanu
11 Angelo Esposito
10 Mat Berquist
9 Tobias Botes

8 Robert Barbieri
7 Paul Derbyshire
6 Marco Filippucci
5 Valerio Bernabò
4 Marco Fuser
3 Lorenzo Cittadini
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain)
1 Matteo Muccignat

Replacements:

16 Giovanni Maistri
17 Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet
18 Pedro Di Santo
19 Antonio Pavanello
20 Dean Budd
21 Fabio Semenzato
22 James Ambrosini
23 Brendan Williams

Head Coach: Marius Goosen.