Compared to the last game played seven days ago, Zebre's win over the French side of La Rochelle, the Parma side could re-call prop Chistolini, centre Bisegni, winger Van Zyl and Haimona.
The Italian international fly-half coming off the bench could wear the black & white jersey for the first time in almost a year after his recovery from the arm injury occurred during last Six Nations 2015. Leonardo Sarto and Derbyshire will be ruled out as they got injured during the last EPCR Challenge Cup game win in Parma.
In the table standings only 3 points divide the two teams after nine rounds. Zebre Rugby lead at nine points thanks to the two home wins against Edinburgh and Cardiff. Six points instead for Treviso, all obtained thanks to defensive bonuses in a 2015/16 winless campaing.
Zebre Rugby team manager Andrea De Rossi presents the Sunday's game: "We prepare each game week by week without accounts or strategies, always trying to win. It's true that the derby against Treviso has a different charm: you can feel it from the air breathed during the week. It shows how all the players care about this match. I'm envying the 23 players that will take the field, realizing the sadness of their team mates who remain in the stands. I think the score will be on a score gap quite tight, which means that first of all the discipline and precision of the kickers will be the keys of the contest taking for granted the importance of the static phases. Treviso is favored if we look at the previous encounters but perhaps we get in a better frame of mind thanks to some of our good results so far in the season. But this should not make us lower our guard as last season we were in the same situation and we lost both derby".
Here's Zebre line-up for Sunday December 27th match at Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma for the 10th round of the Guinness PRO12 against Benetton Treviso. Kick off at 3.00 pm local time :
15 Mils Muliaina
14 Dion Berryman
13 Giulio Bisegni
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 Kayle Van Zyl
10 Carlo Canna
9 Luke Burgess
8 Andries Van Schalkwyk
7 Johan Meyer
6 Jacopo Sarto
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Marco Bortolami
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Tommaso D'Apice*
1 Andrea Lovotti*
Replacements :
16 Oliviero Fabiani
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Pietro Ceccarelli
19 Valerio Bernabò
20 Federico Ruzza*
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Kelly Haimona
23 Ulrich Beyers
Coach. Gianluca Guidi
*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Not available for selection due to injury: Jean Cook, Paul Derbyshire, Quintin Geldenhuys, Andrea Manici*, Bruno Postiglioni, Leonardo Sarto*, Marcello Violi*
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Welsh Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Claudio Blessano e Matteo Liperini (both Federazione Italiana Rugby)
TMO: Alan Falzone (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
Live tv coverage in Italy on Rai Sport 1. Live radio coverage on www.sportparma.com end live text coverage of the game on www.pro12rugby.com
The italian derby previous encounters between Zebre Rugby and Benetton Treviso:
22-Dec-2012 Zebre Rugby v Treviso 3-10 (1-4)
29-Dec-2012 Treviso v Zebre Rugby 26-18 (4-0)
28-Dec-2013 Treviso v Zebre Rugby 20-15 (4-1)
4-Jan-2014 Zebre Rugby v Treviso 14-12 (4-1)
28-Dec-2014 Zebre Rugby v Treviso 16-26 (0-4)
3-Jan-2015 Treviso v Zebre Rugby 17-15 (4-1)
Guinness PRO12 Zebre News
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