Dragons side to face Treviso

Posted on Apr 12, 2012

Luke Charteris will make his 100th RaboDirect PRO12 appearance when he captains Newport Gwent Dragons in their penultimate home match of the season against Benetton Treviso on Friday (7:30pm).

In the backline, Andy Tuilagi misses out with a dead leg and is replaced by Adam Hughes at outside centre. Joe Bedford also gets a start at scum half ahead of Wayne Evans.

Jevon Groves is rested after his exploits for Cross Keys in their British & Irish Cup semi final win last weekend and is replaced by Lewis Evans at openside flanker.

The other changes come in the front row where Sam Parry makes his first senior start at Rodney Parade and Nathan Williams replaces Phil Price.

17 year old Hallam Amos is named among the replacements and could make his first senior Rodney Parade and RaboDirect PRO12 appearance if he comes off the bench. Hallam is rewarded for some impressive performances whilst away with the Wales Under-18s side who finished 4th in the FIRA European Championships last week. Scott Morgan is also on the bench having overcome a pectoral injury suffered against Exeter in December.

Newport Gwent Dragons Team
15 Will Harries
14 Tonderai Chavhanga
13 Adam Hughes
12 Ashley Smith
11 Aled Brew
10 Lewis Robling
9 Joe Bedford
1 Nathan Williams
2 Sam Parry
3 Nathan Buck
4 Luke Charteris (c)
5 Rob Sidoli
6 Danny Lydiate
7 Lewis Evans
8 Toby Faletau

Replacements
16 Steve Jones
17 Phil Price
18 Dan Way
19 Scott Morgan
20 Tom Brown
21 Wayne Evans
22 Jason Tovey
23 Hallam Amos

Treviso team to play Dragons

Posted on Apr 12, 2012

Benetton Rugby have flown this morning to Bergamo, from where they will reach Bristol to play against Newport Gwent Dragons in Round 20 of RaboDirect PRO12.

The match will be played at Rodney Parade, homeground for the Welsh Dragons, at 19:30 GMT,  20:30 Italian time.

The match will be broadcast live on Radio VenetoUno (FM 97.5) and recorded at 23:30 (Italian time) on RaiSport 2, channel 58 of the DTT.

The game for the eighth place in the league sees the two teams just three points apart.  The Referee for the match will be Mr James Matthews (SRU).

Treviso have won two out of three matches against the Dragons so far. But they have to recover from the previous match in Swansea where they lost 41-10 against the Ospreys.

The Dragons have the same goal, as they lost 19-27 against Connacht in their latest home match.

Franco Smith returns again to Newport, where he first played when he arrived in Europe after having played in South Africa and before ending his playing career in Italy.

The former Springbok has decided to line up with a well known team, with Franco Sbaraglini replacing Enrico Ceccato as hooker.

In the back row, Marco Filippucci is starting, as is Robert Barbieri who comes back as No. 8.

As for the backs, Kris Burton is the fly-half and Luke McLean as fullback.

Brendan Williams will gain his 217th cap, overtaking Enrico Pavanello in the top 10 of the most present players of all-time, and approaching Stefano Rigo and Moreno Trevisiol.

Starting line-up:

15 Luke McLean
14 Ludovico Nitoglia
13 Tommaso Iannone
12 Alberto Sgarbi
11 Brendan Williams
10 Kristopher Burton
9 Edoardo Gori
8 Robert Barbieri
7 Alessandro Zanni
6 Marco Filippucci
5 Corniel Van Zyl
4 Antonio Pavanello (captain)
3 Lorenzo Cittadini
2 Franco Sbaraglini
1 Michele Rizzo

On the bench:

16 Diego Vidal
17 Matteo Muccignat
18 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet
19 Valerio Bernabò
20 Francesco Minto
21 Simon Picone
22 Fabio Semenzato
23 Alberto Di Bernardo

Head Coach: Franco Smith.