Bennetton Treviso vs Zebre

After yet another defeat last week at home to their Italian rivals, Zebre will be looking to get their own back and end 2012 on a high.

Treviso edged a 10-3 victory away in Parma with a try early in the second half by Christian Loamanu converted by Alberto Di Bernado. 

Zebre cannot afford any more losses this season and are sure to put up a good fight this afternoon.

Lineups;

Treviso			Zebre
Luke McLean	15		Paolo Buso
Ludovico Nitoglia	14		Giovanbattista Venditti
Christian Loamanu	13		Sinoti Sinoti
Alberto Sgarbi	12		Gonzalo Garcia
Edoardo Gori	11		Leonardo Sarto
Kris Burton	10		Luciano Orquera
Tobias Botes	9		Alberto Chillon
Matteo Muccignat	1		Matias Aguero
Leonardo Ghiraldini	2		Davide Giazzon
Jacobus Roux	3		Luca Redolfini
Francesco Minto	4		Quintin Geldenhuys
Valerio Bernabo	5		Michael van Vuuren
Paul Derbyshire	6		Nicola Cattina
Alessandro Zanni	7		Mauro Bergamasco
Robert Barbieri	8		Dries van Schalkwyk

Pro 12 weekend preview

If you’re short of ideas on what to do on this, your last weekend in 2012, the Robo Direct Pro 12 has all the excitement you need.

With a mixture of teams needing to maintain their high positions and others, to put some much needed points on the board, it will be interesting to see how some of the bigger squads fair against the ones struggling to get their campaign off to a good finish in the calendar year.

Two Irish derbies take place on Saturday, leaders Ulster travel to Thomand Park to take on Munster who sit in third place on the league table in the hope to extend their unbeaten run. Leinster will host Connacht in a match that neither team can afford to loose.

Leinster, having had a recent form that is very uncharacteristic of European Champions, need to put some much needed points on the table, whilst Connacht are struggling in the bottom three.

Another derby takes place again on Saturday with Zebre looking to both get their own back on rivals Treviso, and to get their first win of the season. A win is essential for both sides as Treviso have the opportunity to climb the competition table after Cardiff blues missed out on 3 points at home to Newport. They have won their last two matches in the league but have not had three in a row since October 2011.

Newport would also like to try and claw their way up the table, and regain some dignity in welsh circles after a narrow defeat to Cardiff blues on Boxing day, when they host Ospreys at Rodney Parade.

The table currently sits as follows.

1	(1)	Ulster Rugby	11	11	0	0	47
2	(2)	Scarlets	12	8	0	4	38
3	(3)	Munster Rugby	11	7	0	4	33
4	(4)	Glasgow Warriors	11	7	0	4	32
5	(6)	Ospreys	11	7	0	4	31
6	(5)	Leinster Rugby	11	7	0	4	31
7	(9)	Cardiff Blues	12	5	0	7	24
8	(7)	Benetton Treviso	11	5	0	6	23
9	(8)	Edinburgh Rugby	11	4	0	7	21
10	(10)	Connacht Rugby	11	3	0	8	16
11	(11)	Newport Gwent Dragons	11	3	0	8	14
12	(12)	Zebre	11	0	0	11	5

Rugby is a game of inches

“A thug’s sport played by gentlemen.” That’s the slogan that was drilled into us during years spent in mini-rugby, as part of the ever-prominent war against the rival game, football. 

Being brought up in a middle class Irish household and going to a private school with a rugby squad sponsored by the Irish Rugby Football Union, had its advantages. It wasn't until the age of 9 or 10 that this young boy started to grasp the game and play at a level worthy of a starting position on the 'A' team for our age group.

Entering youth rugby, Campbell College Belfast showed no signs of leaning back and letting the boys enjoying the game.

One month after the 1^st day of secondary school, the trails began and from then on, rugby was a sport to be taken seriously. The head boy each year was, without fail, the captain of the senior 1^st IX.

The ideology was that the rugby team was an advertisement for the school, it was the one thing that the whole country could see, and they wanted everyone to bask in their ambience.

It’s not supervising, therefore, that each lunchtime the senior squad would have lineout practice in the sports hall.

“Rugby is a game of inches,” Mr. McKinney would proclaim. ‘Each phase matters and at no point should you disregard the importance of that extra yard, foot or inch wherever you are on the pitch’ or words to that effect.

It’s amazing to watch a team like the New Zealand All Blacks. Their character, intensity and devotion to the shirt. On December 1^st 2012, the greatest team in the world took the field at Twickenham Stadium to face a new, young England side. Despite being dominated on the scoreboard and eventually beaten, the men in black would, every now and then, show a bit of class, just to remind their opposition that they can’t switch off just because they’re winning.

At no point did New Zealand stop fighting for those extra inches. The clock went red at the end of the game and they were seventeen points behind. The game was lost and you would have thought Dan Carter would just get the ball into touch, but they fought and fought to get the last word in the game.

It takes character to show this kind of dedecation, and despite the score line that day, everyone was left in no doubt as to who is the best rugby squad in the world.

Rugby is a game of character, a game of mental and physical strength. To win at the end of the game, you must first conquer your opposite number in every ruck, maul, scrum and tackle. Rugby is a game of inches!