Winning means entering the semifinals. Tonight coach Crowley seeks the company against the “Cistes”
Silvano Focarelli / TREVISO
Under the banner of “there is no two without three”, Benetton Rugby leaves this morning on a charter from Venice to Montpellier, the capital of Occitania.
And our team put a good dose of confidence in the suitcase: the Challenge Cup, waiting for the Rainbow, is the only competition that this year has managed to give a couple of satisfactions, namely the successes against Agen and Stade François. Now of course in the home of the Lions they would like the three of a kind, which would mean entering the semifinals: and it would be an even more epochal event, given that no Italian team had reached the quarterfinals.
Clearly going to win in France, against the team that eliminated the Glasgow Warriors, is always a remarkable feat, which for ours has already succeeded in Paris. To do this, coach Kieran Crowley made five changes to the starting XV against Agen: two of these were mandatory, given the injuries of Marco Zanon, who in the last match suffered a bruise on his face and for precautionary rest he will be able to return to full speed from next week, and Marco Riccioni victim of inflammation of the Achilles tendon. Their place was taken respectively by Luca Morisi in the center of the trocar and by Tiziano Pasquali as the left prop. The other three changes concern Toa Halafihi, who takes over from Riccardo Favretto, Eli Snyman, who takes the place of Federico Ruzza in the second row and Corniel Els, the new hooker to replace Tomas Baravalle.
The “Cistes” (named after a shrub that grows in the area) in the Top 14 travel in eleventh position with 7 wins and 13 defeats, but they are in an excellent period and come from three consecutive victories in the championship. The course of the Cup saw the transalpines relegate from Heineken to the Challenge Cup. Inserted in Pool A of the Champions League, the Cistes lost at home to Leinster for 14-35 and lost away to Wasps for 33-14. Having finished eleventh in the Heineken group, the translpins in the round of 16 of the Challenge Cup faced the Glasgow Warriors within their friendly walls, beating them 26-21 a week ago. In the history of the Challenge Cup, Benetton and the Cistes faced each other on two occasions in the 2013-2014 edition, with two victories for the French who won in Monigo on 12 October 2013 for 10-27, while in Montpellier on 18 January 2014 they repeated for 24-6. Coached by Philippe Saint-André, Montpellier is a club of great tradition, winning a Challenge Cup in 2016 and a European Shield in 2004.
The Lions have won 11 of the 14 matches they have had to date against French opponents in the Challenge, but in turn the Biancazzurri have lost only on one of the eight occasions in which they have faced an Italian in this competition. It’s going to be a good fight tonight. –