Captain Castello leads Zebre in opening Guinness PRO14 encounter against Ospreys

Zebre Rugby club to take part in the newly-expanded Guinness PRO14.

The Italian franchise will take part in the new tournament that this year saw the introduction of two South African franchises that led to 14 teams, divided into two conferences.

Zebre Rugby Club – who are completely under the control of the Italian Rugby Union, will start its competitive season tomorrow afternoon in Swansea against the Ospreys at 2:30 pm.

Zebre will be playing their opening fixture in Wales for the third consecutive season in Round 1.

The match sees two of the A conference teams facing each other in the first of their two seasonal encounters.

Their conference includes Munster, Connacht, Glasgow Warriors, Cardiff Blues and the South African Cheetahs.

For the opener, the new coaching staff of Zebre, led by the Irishman Michael Bradley, announced the line-up for the Liberty Stadium game.

Gabriele Di Giulio will start on the wing instead of Venditti – after the concussion that forced the Azzurri’s wing to leave the field before halftime – and the young Giovanni Licata at number 8 for the first-ever Guinness Pro14 cap.

The permit player registered with the Italian main league club of the Fiamme Oro Rugby.

There are in total three debutants in the Zebre Rugby squad: in addition to the Sicilian flanker Licata, there are is also fullback Minozzi and English backrower Sisi who will start at lock tomorrow.

On the bench, however, also ready for his debut in the tournament there will be Milan-born Leonard Krumov: the lock who arrived in Parma during this summer.

Zebre Rugby Club line-up – Kick off at 2.30 pm local time:

15 Matteo Minozzi*
14 Giulio Bisegni
13 Mattia Bellini
12 Tommaso Castello (cap)
11 Gabriele Di Giulio*
10 Carlo Canna
9 Marcello Violi*

8 Giovanni Licata* (permit player registered with Fiamme Oro Rugby)
7 Renato Giammarioli*
6 Derick Minnie
5 George Biagi
4 David Sisi
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Andrea Lovotti*

Replacements :

16 Tommaso D’Apice*
17 Andrea De Marchi
18 Roberto Tenga
19 Leonard Krumov*
20 Jacopo Sarto
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Tommaso Boni*
23 Ciaran Gaffney

Coach. Michael Bradley

Not available for selection due to injury: Luhandre Luus*, Andrea Manici*, Maxime Mbandà*, Johan Meyer, Matteo Pratichetti, Riccardo Raffaele*, Giovanbattista Venditti*

*Former member of the Italian Rugby Union Academy “Ivan Francescato” of Parma

Referee: Quinton Immelman (South African Rugby Union)
Assistant Referees: Stuart Berry (South African Rugby Union) and Robert Price (Welsh Rugby Union)