After the first two rounds Zebre are looking for their first official victory and will face again a Welsh opponent after the first two away games in Cardiff and Newport. This Sunday's game will end the third round of the competition which sees in this first phase its calendar to coincide with the fixtures of the World Cup taking place in England since September 18. Both teams will be without several players within their national squads: 10 are in fact the Azzurri players members of the Parma based franchise, while the Scarlets have seven internationals: six with Wales and winger Van Der Merwe with Canada, the last opponent of Italy last Saturday in Leeds.
Zebre are attempting to achieve a 'grand slam' of home victories over the four Welsh regions, having beaten Blues and Ospreys in 2014 and Dragons in 2015. They will try to achieve their first seasonal win with the help of the debut of former All Blacks full-back Muliaina who joined the club last summer from Connacht. In the 23 players list of the Italian side there will be seven permit players on short term loan from the clubs taking part in the main Italian league Eccellenza. Five of them will be starters while former Leinster back McKinley will be on the bench: the Irish player could get back in action in the Pro12 after four years. The fly-half who lost his left eye sight, plays with special "Rugby Goggles" that he has been testing in Italy since March 2014 with the approval of World Rugby.
Here's Zebre line-up for Sunday October 4th match at Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma (Italy) for the 3rd round of the Guinness PRO12 against the Scarlets. Kick off at 2.00 pm local time:
15 Mils Muliaina
14 Mattia Bellini
13 Matteo Pratichetti
12 Tommaso Castello
11 Kayle Van Zyl
10 Edoardo Padovani
9 Fabio Semenzato
8 Andries Van Schalkwyk
7 Johan Meyer
6 Maxime Mbandà*
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Michele Sutto
3 Pietro Ceccarelli
2 Tommaso D'Apice*
1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements:
16 Emiliano Coria
17 Bruno Postiglioni
18 Giuseppe Di Stefano
19 Jacopo Sarto
20 Filippo Cristiano
21 Giulio Toniolatti
22 Dion Berryman
23 Ian McKinley
Coach. Gianluca Guidi
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Referee: Dudley Phillips (Irish Rugby Football Union)
Assistant Referees: Matteo Liperini and Filippo Bertelli(both Federazione Italiana Rugby)
TMO: Alan Falzone (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
Live tv coverage on RAI Sport 2 in Italy. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro12rugby.com
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