URC: Benetton, the team hosting the Dragons

The United Rugby Championship is back: fourteenth round of the championship, which draws to the end of the regular season with the last five matchdays.

Decisive clash and a delicious opportunity to score playoff points for Benetton Rugby, which hosts the Welsh Dragons in Treviso, the penultimate team in the standings with just 3 wins this season.

Many changes in the green and white lineup for the match, as already announced by Marco Bortolami this week. Changes to the XV on the one hand brought about by the desire to give breathing space to those who have played the most, on the other forced by a significant number of unavailability.

Here then is Scott Scrafton’s return to the field. The New Zealand second rower has not played since December 31, 2022 due to a serious knee injury that kept him out for more than a year. Scrafton, who turned 31 on Thursday, will team up with Riccardo Favretto on the second line, making his first start of the season.

Read also: Italia Femminile, Elisa Giordano: “To win against Scotland, the match point will be fundamental”

Around them a scrum package of demonstrated solidity, with Negri, Lamaro and Halafihi in a third line unchanged compared to last Saturday and Spagnolo, Lucchesi and Zilocchi on the front line.

Andy Uren, Marco Zanon and Leonardo Marin enter the XV behind, in the new wing position. Tomas Albornoz keeps the number 10 shirt, while Dewaldt Duvenage returns to the bench and will be able to get his fifth appearance of the season.

“We have made some changes that allow us to have energy and drive from the first minute – declared Benetton head coach Marco Bortolami – The Dragons are a very high-performing team with forwards and it is for this reason that I chose to bring on the bench six forwards and two quarters; to keep the pace and intensity of the fight as high as possible over the course of the 80 minutes.”

“Some players who had played less in the last period will return to the pitch and I’m sure they will be ready. The choice to put Marin on the wing is due to the fact that we believe he is the player with the most suitable characteristics to cover a role in which we have many injured players. It’s not his primary position, but he’s trained very well and I’m sure he’ll have a great match.”

Benetton, the formation for the Dragons

15 Rhyno Smith (49)
14 Leonardo Marin (20)
13 Ignacio Brex (79)
12 Marco Zanon (75)
11 Onisi Ratave (21)
10 Tomas Albornoz (47)
9 Andy Uren (17)
8 Toa Halafihi (70)
7 Michele Lamaro (C) (64)
6 Sebastian Negri (81)
5 Riccardo Favretto (36)
4 Scott Scrafton (9)
3 Giosué Zilocchi (14)
2 Gianmarco Lucchesi (42)
1 Spanish Mirco (14)

Available: 16 Bautista Bernasconi (20), Ivan Nemer (45), 18 Tiziano Pasquali (132), 19 Gideon Koegelenberg (7), 20 Edoardo Iachizzi (10), 21 Alessandro Izekor (29), 22 Dewaldt Duvenage (95), 23 Jacob Umaga (34).

Unavailable: Lorenzo Cannone, Niccolò Cannone, Malakai Fekitoa, Simone Ferrari, Thomas Gallo, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Marco Lazzaroni, Ignacio Mendy, Tommaso Menoncello, Giacomo Nicotera, Paolo Odogwu, Edoardo Padovani, Joaquin Riera, Federico Ruzza, Eli Snyman, Nahuel Tetaz , Marcus Watson, Manuel Zuliani.

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