After the first bracket of EPCR Champions Cup games, Zebre will be engaged in the seventh round of the Guinness PRO12 tomorrow against Edinburgh at Murrayfield Stadium.
This will be the ninth game between the two teams in the tournament with the italians to have three wins in their overall record, all at the Stadio Lanfranchi in Parma where the second encounter will take place on December 31.
Biagi and his team mates are looking for their first win of the season, while the Scots and new head coach Duncan Hodge arrive in a strong place, thanks to three consecutive bonus wins at home against Treviso in the last Guinness Pro12 round and in the first two games of the EPCR Challenge Cup in Timisoara and last Saturday at Murrayfield against Harlequins.
Compared to the starting line-up against Connacht, there are two changes into Zebre line-up: Bisegni takes the place of the injured Di Giulio moving from centre to the wing, leaving to the other international Boni the jersey number 13.
Likewise in the front row, hooker D'Apice will wear the jersey number 2 instead of suspended Fabiani.
A total of 11 italian international selected into the Azzurri squad for the autumn test matches are in the starting XV chosen by head coach Guidi.
On the bench, there are two permit players from the main U20 National Academy "Ivan Francescato" of Parma: winger D'Onofrio - one cap with Zebre last Sunday in the EPCR Champions Cup game starting from the bench as well - and hooker Ceciliani - his first overall call by Zebre Rugby.
Here's Zebre line-up for Friday, October 28th match at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (Scotland) for the 7th round of the Guinness PRO12 against the Scottish side of Edinburgh. Kick off at 7.35 pm local time:
15 Edoardo Padovani*
14 Giulio Bisegni
13 Tommaso Boni
12 Tommaso Castello
11 Giovanbattista Venditti*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Marcello Violi*
8 Andries Van Schalkwyk
7 Johan Meyer
6 Maxime Mbandà*
5 George Biagi (cap)
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
3 Pietro Ceccarelli
2 Tommaso D'Apice*
1 Andrea Lovotti*
Replacements :
16 Massimo Ceciliani*
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Dario Chistolini
19 Federico Ruzza*
20 Derick Minnie
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Matteo Pratichetti
23 Giovanni D'Onofrio*
Coach. Gianluca Guidi
*Former member/member of the Italian Rugby Union academy "Ivan Francescato" of Tirrenia.
Not available for selection due to injury: Kurt Baker, Mattia Bellini, Valerio Bernabò, Dion Berryman, Serafin Bordoli, Gabriele Di Giulio*, Carlo Festuccia, Lloyd Greeff, Gideon Koegelenberg, Andrea Manici*, Jacopo Sarto, Kayle Van Zyl
Suspended: Oliviero Fabiani
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Federazione Italiana Rugby)
Assistant Referees: Emanuele Tomò (Federazione Italiana Rugby) and Sam Grove-White (Scottish Rugby Union)
No tv coverage of the game. Live text coverage of the game on www.pro12rugby.com and on Zebre Rugby twitter account with the official game hashtag #EDIvZEB. Live radio coverage on BBC Radio Scotland.
Guinness PRO12 Zebre News
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