Zebre v Harlequins - Heineken Cup match preview

Mike Brown: Returns from international duty with England to start at full-back for Harlequins

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Premiership champions Harlequins will be looking to take a step closer to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals when they clash with Zebre in Parma on Saturday.

The Pool Three leaders are unbeaten and lead their nearest rivals, Biarritz, by four points and will want to put some distance between themselves and the French side.

The Italian new boys are still looking for their first victory in Europe and play only their third game of Heineken Cup rugby.

Quins will be hoping their recent record of three wins in their last four away games in the tournament, included one in Toulouse, will hold them in good stead in Italy.

The Premiership outfit welcome back Mike Brown and Danny Care from international duty with England to start at full-back and scrum-half respectively, while Tom Casson joins Matt Hopper in the centres.

Nick Easter continues as skipper in an unchanged forward pack from last week's 22-19 win over Worcester Warriors.

Ugo Monye and Ben Botica return from injury and are named among the replacements. Darryl Marfo and Joe Trayfoot, who replaces the injured Tom Guest, will look to make their Heineken Cup debuts.

Zebre 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Gonzalo Garcia, 12 Matteo Pratichetti, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Nicola Cattina, 5 Josh Sole, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 David Ryan, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Luca Redolfini, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Filippo Ferrarini, 21 Alberto Chillon, 22 Samuele Pace, 23 Paolo Buso.

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Sam Smith, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Olly Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Mark Lambert.
Replacements:16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Darryl Marfo, 18 Will Collier, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Joe Trayfoot, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Ugo Monye.

What they said...

Harlequins' Tom Williams

"We underachieved in the Heineken Cup last season. Connacht did brilliantly to beat us in the final pool game and that cost us so we know we can't afford to take any side or any competition lightly."

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