After losing against two Irish teams, Benetton Treviso continue their Celtic adventure in Wales for Round 16 of the RaboDirect PRO12.
Treviso have been hit hard by injury and six nations selections, missing 15 players in total including Francesco Minto, who replaces Paul Derbyshire. They meet Llanelli on Thursday (ko 19:35) at Parc y Scarlets, just 7 points behind the Welsh side in the table; Treviso are 8th with 28 points, while the Scarlets are 7th with 35 points.
The restart of the Italian Campionato di Eccellenza further complicates the situation, as the permit players have to play with their club, so they are not at Benetton Treviso’s disposal.
Coach Franco Smith selects the back three seen in Dublin against Leinster: Ludovico Nitoglia is the full-back, Benjamin De Jager and Brendan Williams are the wingers.
A new young pair is at centre, where Andrea Pratichetti is playing with Tommaso Iannone, who returns in his old role as outside centre. Marco Filippucci is confirmed as No. 8, while Gonzalo Padrò and Manoa Vosawai are coming back as first string flankers.
There are some significant changes also on the bench, where Enrico Ceccato, Augusto Allori and Carlo Fazzari are the replacements for the front row, while Benjamin Vermaak will replace a lock or a back row player.
Diego Vidal is, however, the biggest novelty replacement of the match, as the hooker is likely to replace a back row player.
As for the backs, we will see Gonzalo Garcia, Alberto Di Bernardo, and Ezio Galon, who might replace Simon Picone as scrum-half, reverting to the role he played as a youth player.
Starting XV:
15 Ludovico Nitoglia
14 Benjamin De Jager
13 Tommaso Iannone
12 Andrea Pratichetti
11 Brendan Williams
10 Willem De Waal
9 Simon Picone
8 Marco Filippucci
7 Gonzalo Padrò
6 Manoa Vosawai
5 Valerio Bernabò
4 Enrico Pavanello
3 Pedro Di Santo
2 Franco Sbaraglini (Captain)
1 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet
Replacements:
16 Enrico Ceccato
17 Augusto Allori
18 Carlo Fazzari
19 Benjamin Vermaak
20 Diego Vidal
21 Ezio Galon
22 Gonzalo Garcia
23 Alberto Di Bernardo