Treviso v Connacht: Teams
Gavin Duffy will lead out Connacht against Treviso in the opening round of the new RaboDirect PRO12 season.
Last Updated: 02/09/11 5:35pm
Gavin Duffy will lead out Connacht against Benetton Treviso in the opening round of their RaboDirect PRO12 season in Italy.
Full-back Duffy has been named as his side's new skipper and will start in a back three that also includes former Ulster player Mark McCrea and Ireland U20 international Tiernan O'Halloran.
Henry Fa'aili and Eoin Griffin start in the centres while scrum-half Frank Murphy and ex-Ospreys fly-half Matthew Jarvis renew their half-back pairing.
Connacht have four players in the pack with more than 100 caps.
Adrian Flavin, Mike McCarthy and John Muldoon have all reached the milestone while Michael Swift is just short of his 200th cap for the province.
Last year Connacht and Treviso shared one narrow win each against each other.
Treviso, meanwhile, will field several debutants on home soil due to 12 of their players heading to the World Cup in New Zealand with Italy.
In the front-row, Augusto Allori starts at tighthead opposite loosehead Michele Rizzo, with Franco Sbaraglini playing at hooker.
Alberto Chillon is in at scrum-half with Willem De Waal at fly-half, with support coming from centres Andrea Pratichetti and Kristopher Burton.
Treviso: 15 Ludovico Nitoglia, 14 Michele Sepe, 13 Kristopher Burton, 12 Andrea Pratichetti, 11 Brendan Williams, 10 Willem De Waal, 9 Alberto Chillon, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Francesco Minto, 6 Marco Filippucci, 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Antonio Pavanello (capt), 3 Augusto Allori, 2 Franco Sbaraglini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Pedro Di Santo, 19 Gonzalo Padrò, 20 Benjamin Vermaak, 21 Simon Picone, 22 Alberto Di Bernardo, 23 Benjamin De Jager.
Connacht 15 Gavin Duffy (capt), 14 Mark McCrea, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Henry Fa'afili, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Matthew Jarvis, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Ronan Loughney.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Denis Buckley, 18 Dylan Rogers, 19 TJ Anderson, 20 Johnny O'Connor, 21 Paul O'Donohoe, 22 Nial O'Connor, 23 Brian Tuohy.
