Benetton Rugby will start the new season against last season’s finalist Munster at Irish Independent Park tomorrow evening.
The match will start at 19.35 local (20.35 Italian) and will be directed by Welsh referee Ian Davies and assistants Craig Evans and Gary Conway. The match broadcaster will be TG4.
The 23 Lions that will take the field are as follows:
Full back will be Ian McKinley, on the wings Angelo Esposito and Edoardo Gori. Tommaso Benvenuti and Tommaso Allan will be right and left centre respectively
The half backs are Tito Tebaldi at scrum half and Marty Banks at fly-half.
The front row will consist of Federico Zani, Luca Bigi and Simone Ferrari.
Locks will be the captain Dean Budd and Marco Lazzaroni. Finally, the back row sees Francesco Minto, Sebastian Negri and Whetu Douglas completing the XV chosen by Crowley.
Benetton Rugby: 15 Ian McKinley,14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Tommaso Allan, 11 Edoardo Gori, 10 Marty Banks, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Whetu Douglas, 7 Sebastian Negri, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Marco Lazzaroni, 4 Dean Budd (C), 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Federico Zani.
Replacements: 16 Engjel Makelara, 17 Cherif Traore, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Abraham Steyn, 21 Giorgio Bronzini, 22 Alberto Sgarbi, 23 Andrea Buondonno
Head Coach: Kieran Crowley
Unavailable: Robert Barbieri, Marco Barbini, Ignacio Brex, Andrea Bronzini, Marco Fuser, Ornel Gega, Irné Herbst, Tommaso Iannone, Luca Morisi, Nicola Quaglio, Luca Sperandio, Michael Tagicakibau, Alessandro Zanni, Matteo Zanusso.
Matawalu returns to Glasgow