Zebre Parma host the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday in Parma at 15:00, who will be looking for their first victory away from home in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship since their trip to Dragons in early January.
The team from Pretoria have not lost to Zebre though, and beat the Italians by 45-7 on their only previous visit to Stadio Lanfranchi in February 2022.
Vodacom Bulls' Director of Rugby, Jake White has made a number of changes as he rotates his squad to manage player load. Wilco Louw is retained at the front row and this week he will have Simphiwe Matanzima (loose-head) and Akker van der Merwe (hooker) serving alongside him at the front. Co-captain Ruan Nortje will pair up with Janko Swanepoel as this week’s lock combination at second row with Marcell Coetzee at blind-side, Elrigh Louw at open-side flank and Cameron Hanekom at eight, completing the forward pack in an unchanged back row.
Zak Burger starts at scrumhalf, combining with flyhalf Johan Goosen as the halfback duo to conduct traffic in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.
Behind the Burger-Goosen partnership will be David Kriel at inside centre alongside Stedman Gans on his outside whilst Devon Williams is retained at fullback. On the wings will be Petersen and Sebastian de Klerk.
The run of new combinations this week sees Johan Grobbelaar slot into the impact squad alongside ‘the bulldog’ Dylan Smith who is set for his first run in blue this season. Mornay Smith, Reinhardt Ludwig, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith and Wandisile Simelane complete the 5-3 split of fresh legs.
“They (Zebre) were in both their opening games till the death. This Zebre side came close against Ulster and they were in it against Ospreys so we know they will be tough opponents for sure. They were a scrum away from the match against Ulster and they just just lost it against Ospreys, so there are no easy games,” said Jake White.
“Zebre with the make-up of their squad probably have the least number of internationals and that means they have the least amount of disruptions which makes them hard to come up against at the start of a season.”
Posed about how the team manages complacency and whether or not the changes are to manage that, White said: “We lost last week, so complacency is not a worry for us. We know that this is a tough competition and so we want to make sure we have depth in all roles but complacency is not a concern for us,”
“it will be nice to see Simphiwe (Matanzima) start, it has been a while since he had a start and he will be alongside Akker (van der Merwe) who is a Springbok and also Wilco (Louw) who is a Springbok. It will be good to see that combination work for us. We also have a new lock combination to try out and it will be nice to see how those 5-lock jumpers work together, so there is a lot of reason,”
“From a coaching point of view, we want to see whether or not we have created competition in each position because we need to play well all the time and we can’t rely on the same players all the time.”
Zebre Parma head coach Fabio Roselli said: "The game with the Vodacom Bulls will be one of the toughest of the season. It will be a good test for set pieces, our defence and the collision area. We have some players making their first appearance of the season, it will be an opportunity for them to prove their worth. We are happy with the return of Taina Fox-Matamua after the injury that kept him off the field for a long time”.
Teams:
Vodacom Bulls: 1 Simphiwe Matanzima, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 3 Wilco Louw, 4 Janko Swanepoel, 5 Ruan Nortje (c), 6 Marcell Coetzee (c), 7 Elrigh Louw, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 9 Zak Burger, 10 Johan Goosen, 11 Sergeal Petersen, 12 David Kriel, 13 Stedman Gans, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 15 Devon Williams. Replacements: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Wandisile Simelane.
Zebre Parma: 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Marco Manfredi, 3 Muhamed Hasa, 4 Dylan de Leeuw, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 6 Guido Volpi, 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 8 Davide Ruggeri, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 10 Geronimo Prisciantelli (c), 11 Simone Gesi, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 13 Fetuli Paea, 14 Scott Gregory, 15 Lorenzo Pani. Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Luca Andreani, 21 Taina Fox-Matamua, 22 Gonzalo Garcia, 23 Jacopo Trulla
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