After the second round, the competition will stop for two weekends to leave the stage to the World Cup that includes 9 Zebre Rugby players capped by the Italian national team. Tomorrow night, Zebre Rugby will face coach Lyn Jones' side at the Rodney Parade, the Welsh fortress where the Italian team has never gained points in the previous three encounters. The account between the two teams, however, also sees a draw and a win for the italian side last March 1 in the last clash played between the two teams: at Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma the final score was 23-17.
Zebra will also count for tomorrow's game on seven permit players from the italian main league Eccellenza. Four of them - Di Giulio, Castello, Bellini and Azzolini - only made PRO12 debut at the Arms Park last Sunday. There will be four changes decided by head coach Guidi in the starting XV respect to the opener : Berryman, Pratichetti, Bortolami and Beyers will replace their team mates as starters.
Team manager Andrea de Rossi described how the team prepared for this important game in Newport :"After the Cardiff defeat there was the will of all to look forward with the obligation to share the positive aspects of the game against the Blues deeply analyzing the negatives. On the positive side there's the first half hour of the Arms Park in which we were ahead in the score with good static phases. During this week in Wales in the many sessions of individual and collective analysis the coaches tried to clarify all their requests to our players. In all there is a great desire for redemption that came also from the awareness of the good work done from June to today. Our goal is to have a high standard on the field for 80 minutes against the Dragons: the contribution of all 23 players will be key against an really physical opponent".
The head coach Gianluca Guidi comments on his choices to face the Dragons: "I expect a good reaction on the field, we must act fielding the quality of our work. During these days we have worked well, remaining calm aware that the Cardiff second half was just an episode. This retreat was an excellent opportunity to meet and work within the team, a time of growth even more important after Sunday's defeat. Even in the light of the prolonged injury of Haimona and the short time unavailability of Padovani and Canna we chose to try Beyers at number ten, a concrete option for the coming months as a third solution at fly half. At fullback our staff chose to give minutes also to Berryman to evaluate all the players waiting to have also available in the role even Muliaina. In midfield we wanted to physicality with Pratichetti and Castello to counter attacks directed by the Dragons. For the same reason in the forwards, we need the weight and experience of Bortolami from the first minute while I expect a lot even from the replacements".
Here's Zebre line-up for Friday September 10th match at the Rodney Parade in Newport (Wales) for the 2nd round of the Guinness PRO12 against the Dragons. Kick off at 2.30 pm local time :
15 Dion Berryman
14 Gabriele Di Giulio*
13 Tommaso Castello
12 Matteo Pratichetti
11 Michele Visentin*
10 Ulrich Beyers
9 Luke Burgess
8 Andries Van Schalkwyk
7 Maxime Mbandà*
6 Paul Derbyshire
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Marco Bortolami
3 Pietro Ceccarelli
2 Tommaso D'Apice*
1 Bruno Postiglioni
Replacements :
16 Oliviero Fabiani
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Emiliano Coria
19 Michele Sutto
20 Emiliano Caffini
21 Fabio Semenzato
22 Mattia Bellini
23 Maicol Azzolini*
Coach. Gianluca Guidi
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Referee: Lloyd Lynton (Scottish Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell e Simon Rees (both WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (Wales Rugby Union)
Live tv coverage on BBC Wales. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro12rugby.com
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