Treviso team announcement

Benetton-trevisoBenetton Treviso have flown this morning to Edinburgh, where they are playing the Scottish team at 19:30 (20:30 Italian time) on Friday for Round Six of RaboDirect PRO12.

Lots of changes in Franco Smith’s starting XV: Alberto Sgarbi and Tommaso Benvenuti are again playing together at centre, while wingers will be Tommaso Iannone on the right hand side, and Tobias Botes on the left hand side of the pitch.

Luke McLean is playing fullback, while Fabio Semenzato and the hero of the latest match Alberto Di Bernardo are playing scrum-half and fly-half respectively.

Simone Favaro, who was down with the flu last week, is back as flanker.

Captain Antonio Pavanello is playing lock with Francesco Minto, while the front row will remain unchanged.

On the bench are returning Enrico Ceccato, Alberto De Marchi and Giulio Toniolatti.

(more…)

Benetton Rugby Team Announcement

logo_benettonrugbyAfter having dealt with Ospreys and Munster, in RaboDirect PRO12 Round 3 Benetton Treviso is playing another big name in European rugby: the European Champions of Leinster.

This will be the fifth Celtic match between the two teams. So far, Leinster have won three times, while Treviso only once.

Treviso and Leinster, however, met for the first time in the 2004/2005 Heineken Cup, when the Irish won both matches: 9-25 in Treviso and 57-17 in Dublin.

In the 2009/10 season, instead, Benetton won in their first home match 29-13 on 18th September 2010, but lost 30-5 in Dublin.

In last year’s RaboDirect PRO12 the two teams met first on 26th November in Treviso (20-30 to Leinster) and then on 9th February in Dublin (42-9 to Leinster).

Last week’s matches saw the Italian XV losing 19-6 at Thomond Park in Limerick against Munster, while Leinster won sharply 45-25 against the Newport Gwent Dragons, thus avenging the loss suffered against the Scarlets in Round 1.

For Saturday’s match it is likely that Leinster will line up some of the top players, whom, according to Irish Union’s decisions, were given a period of rest after the summer tour in New Zealand.

Referee for the match will be Mr. Ian Davies from the Welsh Federation.

(more…)