The Italian North-West franchise will face former scrum-half Brendon Leonard for the second time this season. The Ospreys scrum half amassed 47 caps with Zebre in the last two seasons. The Welsh side got the win in the first leg on November 7 but is winless on aways during the 2015/16 season.
For the encounter Zebre Rugby will unveil their second jersey of the season that will be dressed for the first time on Sunday. The kit will be black with horizontal white & gold stripes; the color choice was decided by the club along with Erreà, technical partner of the club.
For the match against the Ospreys the coaching staff won't count on several athletes injured during the last few games. There will be seasonal debut for the experiences backs: Italian international Gonzalo Garcia and former All Blacks Mils Muliaina, ready to give their contribution of international experience to a very young backs line. In particular it will be the much awaited overall debut with Zebre Rugby for the 100 times capped All Blacks Muliaina, landed in Parma during last summer from the Irish side of Connacht.
Zebre Rugby team manager Andrea De Rossi presents the Sunday's game: "We get back in action starting from the last 50 minutes of Llanelli's game, highlighting with pleasure the fact that the Zebras are becoming ever more efficient also on away against one of the top table teams. Certainly we need to improve the performance of the start of our games: in the week we thoroughly analyzed the reasons for these false starts.
I am very happy with the debut of Muliaina, he had bad luck two months ago suffering a serious muscle injury during a captain's run; during the last weeks the player has always shown great determination and will to return and to be part of this group of players. The same goes for Garcia, another important pillar of our team at his seasonal debut. We will face the Ospreys team surely on form, as evidenced by their results in the EPCR Champions Cup.
Despite our many important absences for injures, I expect a big reaction from the guys who will take the field to emphasize how our roster choices made were taken in the right improving direction".
Here's Zebre line-up for Sunday December 6th match at Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma for the 9th round of the Guinness PRO12 against the Ospreys. Kick off at 3.00 pm local time :
15 Mils Muliaina
14 Dion Berryman
13 Tommaso Boni*
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 Kayle Van Zyl
10 Carlo Canna
9 Marcello Violi*
8 Paul Derbyshire
7 Johan Meyer
6 Jacopo Sarto
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Valerio Bernabò
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Andrea Manici*
1 Andrea Lovotti*
Replacements :
16 Oliviero Fabiani
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Guillermo Roan
19 Marco Bortolami
20 Federico Ruzza*
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Giulio Bisegni
23 Edoardo Padovani*
Coach. Gianluca Guidi
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Not available for selection due to injury: Ulrich Beyers, Pietro Ceccarelli, Jean Cook, Quintin Geldenhuys, Kelly Haimona, Bruno Postiglioni, Andries Van Schalkwyk, Leonardo Sarto.
Referee: John Lacey (Irish Rugby Football Union)
Assistant Referees: Elia Rizzo and Luca Trentin (both Federazione Italiana Rugby)
TMO: Stefano Penné (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
Delayed tv coverage in Italy on Rai Sport 2 at 6.50 pm. Live streaming on Rai Sport website www.raisport.rai.it , live radio coverage on www.sportparma.com and live text coverage of the game on www.pro12rugby.com
Guinness PRO12 Zebre News
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