Zebre v Benetton - Teams and Prediction
URC ROUND EIGHT: The festive fare in the United Rugby Championship starts on Christmas Eve, Friday, with the Italian derby between Zebre and Benetton, the visitors from Treviso, in Parma.
Zebre Parma sit bottom of the URC standings having registered only a solitary bonus point from their opening five matches.
They have won just seven of their 24 encounters with Benetton, losing the previous two, with their last victory over their rivals coming in Parma in January.
Benetton, the Rainbow Cup champions, have won just one of their last five URC matches – a last-gasp home success over Glasgow Warriors last month.
They have failed to post a victory on their travels since beating Zebre in May.
Zebre Parma coach Michael Bradley has made five changes to the squad selected from their Challenge Cup encounter with Toulon.
Meanwhile, skipper Michele Lamaro has been named in the back row for Benetton.
Prediction:
@rugby365com: Benetton by five points.
Teams:
Zebre: 15 Jacopo Trulla, 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Giulio Bisegni (captain), 12 Tommaso Boni, 11 Asaeli Tuivuaka, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Guglielmo Palazzani, 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Maxime Mbandà, 6 Liam Mitchell, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 David Sisi, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Iacopo Bianchi, 21 Marcello Violi, 22 Timothy Paul O’Malley, 23 Junior Laloifi.
Benetton: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Luca Sperandio, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Rhyno Smith, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Giovanni Pettinelli, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Ivan Nemer, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Hame Faiva, 17 Cherif Traoré, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Carl Wegner, 20 Sebastian Negri, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Joaquin Riera.
Date: Friday, December 24
Venue: Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma
Kick-off: 14.00 (13.00 GMT)
Referee: Andrea Piardi
Assistant Referees: Federico Vedovell, Dario Merli
TMO: Stefano Roscini
