Biarritz have made five changes to their starting XV for Saturday's Heineken Cup clash with Zebre at Parc des Sports Aguilera.
Having lost their opening Pool Three game against Harlequins, the Basques have moved French internationals Damien Traille and Raphael Lakafia up from the bench and have recalled hooker Benoīt August and fly-half Jean-Pascal Barraque to the run-on side.
Traille comes returns at inside centre, moving Seremaļa Burotu to 13 while Dane Haylett-Petty drops out of the matchday 22. Barraque takes over from Peyrelongue in the pivot role.
Amongst the forwards, Lakafia replaces Talalelei Gray at number eight. Arnaud Heguy, who scored a try against Quins, drops to the bench to accommodate August.
In the second-row, Pelu Taele is preferred to Thibault Dubarry.
On the bench, Argentina centre Marcelo Bosch makes his return from international duty.
Meanwhile, Zebre are still chasing their first victory in any competition and have made five changes to the team that lost to Connacht last week.
Wing Sinoti Sinoti is a notable injury absentee giving Matteo Pratichetti a chance to start.
Fly-half Luciano Orquera makes his first start of the campaign as does flanker Filippo Ferrarini.
The teams:
Biarritz Olympique: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Taku Ngwenya, 13 Seremaļa Burotu, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Jean-Pascal Barraque, 9 Yann Lesgourgues, 8 Raphael Lakafia, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Pelu Taele, 4 Erik Lund, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Benoit August , 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Arnaud Heguy, 17 Thomas Synaeghel, 18 Eugene van Staden, 19 Thibault Dubarry, 20 Benoit Guyot, 21 Julien Peyrelongue, 22 Marcelo Bosch, 23 Benoīt Baby.
Zebre: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Gonzalo Garcia, 12 Daniel Halangahu, 11 Matteo Pratichetti, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Luca Martinelli, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Filippo Ferrarini, 5 Mike Van Vuren, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Luca Redolfini, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 David Ryan, 18 Carlo Fazzari, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Filippo Cristiano, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Alberto Benettin, 23 David Odiete.
Date: Saturday, October 20
Venue: Parc des Sports Aguilera, Biarritz
Kick-off: 19:00 (18:00 BST /17:00 GMT)
Referee: Dudley Phillips
Comments
Be the first to comment on this story..