The Irish team is currently in seventh place, the lowest position reached during an excellent season which has seen coach Lam's club on course for a historic qualification to the playoffs.
Zebre will try to greet Parma supporters by gaining their fourth home win in the Pro12 after beating Ulster, Edinburgh and Newport. It will also be the last game in front of the Stadio Lanfranchi audience for several players who will leave the Parma based franchise at the end of the season: some of them with transfers already announced such as Leonard, Venditti and Vunisa while Mauro Bergamasco - Italian rugby icon - who will retire from club rugby at the end of the season in seven days in Cardiff after 18 years played with the jerseys of Petrarca Padova and Benetton Treviso in Italy, Stade Français in France, Aironi and Zebre in the Celtic league. tThe Padua born flanker has played 300 club games and has also gained 102 caps with the Italian national team, aiming to grow this number by attending the World Cup in England later this year.
Zebre Rugby head coach Victor Jimenez spurs his side ahead of this crucial match : "The team is aware that it must improve after the bad performance of the last game in Edinburgh. We had a good week of work, very competitive. We trust in a great performance tomorrow. In the first leg in Galway we suffered on the conquest phases: we expect a similar challenge, especially hard for the forwards. Connacht has had a great season, while we have been very inconsistent. Tomorrow we have to go out and achieve a good performance like we have maintained all season in front of our fans".
Here's Zebre line-up for Saturday 9 May 2015 at the Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma (ITALY) for the 21st round of the GUINNESS PRO12 against the Irish side of Connacht. Kick off at 6.30 pm local time:
15 Dion Berryman
14 Giovanbattista Venditti*
13 Matteo Pratichetti
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 Michele Visentin*
10 Luciano Orquera
9 Brendon Leonard
8 Andries Van Schalkwyk
7 Mauro Bergamasco (cap)
6 Filippo Cristiano
5 Valerio Bernabò
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Andrea Manici*
1 Matias Aguero
Replacements:
16 Oliviero Fabiani
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Luca Redolfini
19 Andrei Mahu
20 Jacopo Sarto
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Alberto Chillon*
23 Mirco Bergamasco
Coach. Victor Jimenez
Not available for selection due to injury: George Biagi, Giulio Bisegni, Marco Bortolami, Hendrik Daniller, Tommaso D'Apice*, Kelly Haimona, Tommaso Iannone*, Andrea Lovotti*, Edoardo Padovani*, Leonardo Sarto*
* Former member of the Italian Rugby Union U20 academy "Ivan Francescato".
Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 30th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Matteo Liperini e Filippo Bertelli (both FIR)
TMO: Stefano Penné (FIR)
Live tv coverage on Nuvolari TV in Italy. Live score text coverage on www.pro12rugby.com
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