Pro 12: International Weekend preivew

With the Six Nations taking center and Super Rugby also kicking off this weekend you have no shortage of games to choose from this weekend. The Pro 12 Round 14 offers a number of exciting games to complement the rest of the action. TRU previews it all.

Guinness Pro 12 Round 14 Previews
Round 14

Ulster Rugby v Benetton Treviso    
Ulster welcomes Treviso to the Kingspan Stadium this Friday night boosting an undefeated home record in the league this season. Only all concurring Toulon have managed to beat them in Belfast. Craig Gilroy will win this 100th cap for the home side after news this week that fellow winger Andrew Trimble will miss the rest of the season with a recurrence of a toe injury.

Treviso has a far from impressive record on the road. They beat fellow Italian strugglers Zebre in December but the last time they won a game against an Irish province in Ireland was against Connacht in December 2011.

Ulster are currently fifth in the table and will have earmarked this fixture as a must win in their quest for a semi-final spot. A win in Belfast for the home side looks like the most likely outcome, but win a number of Internationals missing and a few key players injured this is by no means a certainty.

Ulster
15 L Ludik 14 C Gilroy 13 D Cave 12 L Marshall 11 M Allen 10 I Humphreys 9 R Pienaar 1 C Black 2 R Herring 3 W Herbst 4 L Stevenson 5 F Van der Merwe 6 R Wilson (Captain) 7 M McComish 8 Williams;

Replacements
16 J Andrew 17 A Warwick 18 B Ross 19 R Diack 20 C Ross 21 P Marshall 22 S McCloskey 23 P Nelson.

Treviso
15 Jayden Hayward 14 Angelo Esposito 13 Henry Bacchin 12 Sam Christie 11 Ludovico Nitoglia 10 Joe Carlisle 9 Alberto Lucchese 8 Mat Luamanu 7 Dean Budd 6 Meyer Swanepoel 5 Corniel Van Zyl 4 Antonio Pavanello (captain) 3 Rupert Harden 2 Davide Giazzon 1 Matthew Zanusso
 
Replacements
16 Albert Anae 17 Jose Novak 18 Salesi Manu 19 Tomas Vallejos 20 Nicola Cattina 21 Andrea Pratichetti 22 James Ambrosini 23 Henry Seniloli


Edinburgh Rugby v Ospreys
Edinburgh is hosting a game on Myreside for the first time since 2001. They have won the last four home games since defeat to Connacht in Murrayfield last September but have lost five of their last six on the road. A mixed bag for sure which is reflected in their position of 7th in the table.

League leaders Ospreys travel to Scotland with only one win in all competitions in January against the Newport Gwent Dragons. Surprisingly they have only won once in the last nine visits up north. With their next three games against Glasgow, Leinster and Munster, Ospreys will be targeting this one as a must win encounter. Coach Steve Tandy admits this month could be the making or breaking of their season with European rugby over for another year.

Neither side goes into this one in particularly good form. The win does seem to be more important for Ospreys given their next run of games but with Edinburgh’s good record at home this season they wont make it easy for them. This is a tie almost too close to call.


Edinburugh
15 Jack Cuthbert 14 Damien Hoyland 13 Sam Beard 12 Phil Burleigh 11 Tom Brown 10 Jade Te Rure 9 Grayson Hart 1 Rory Sutherland 2 Neil Cochrane 3 WP Nel 4 Anton Bresler 5 Ollie Atkins 6 Roddy Grant 7 Hugh Blake 8 Mike Coman

Replacements?16 Stuart McInally 17 Grant Shiells 18 John Andress 19 Fraser McKenzie 20 Tomas Leonardi 21 Alex Glashan 22 Tom Heathcote 23 Andries Strauss


Ospreys
15 Dan Evans 14 Tom Grabham 13 Ashley Beck 12 Josh Matavesi 11 Richard Fussell 10 Sam Davies 9 Martin Roberts 1 Marc Thomas 2 Scott Otten 3 Dmitri Arhip 4 Tevita Cavubati 5 Rory Thornton 6 Joe Bearman 7 Sam Lewis 8 Tyler Ardron (Capt)
 
Replacements
16 Matthew Dwyer 17 Duncan Jones 18 Daniel Suter 19 James King 20 Ieuan Jones 21 Dan Baker 22 Tom Habberfield 23 Jonathan Spratt


Munster vs Cardiff Blues
The Cardiff Blues were the last team to beat Munster at Independent Park in 2013. Munster welcome the to the same venue this time around. They have only won three of their last ten fixtures and will working to hard to maintain their top four status. A very disappointing final round of the Champions Cup will narrow their focus on winning the Pro 12 for the fourth time.

The Blues are yet to enjoy a win over Irish opposition this season and the trip to Munster looks like a very difficult task. That win in Independent Park was their only victory over them in the last nine meetings.

Munster are notoriously hard to beat and home and even though Independent Park is the venue this time around they will be just as difficult an opponent to overcome. Cardiff have been languishing in the bottom half of the table and have been far from impressive this season pointing to a home win in Cork.

Teams to be announced

Scarlets v Connacht Rugby    
Scarlets have a formidable recent record at the Parc y Scarlets in the Pro 12. They are unbeaten in their last twelve games since losing to the Ospreys in December 2013. Two contrasting records see the Scarlets yet to beat an Irish province this season but only Leinster has beaten them in Illaneli since December 2012.

Connacht beat the Scarlets in the reverse fixture 14-8 in Galway in round 9 but hasn’t beaten them on their own turf since October 2004. Their last three visits to Wales have ended in defeat. Only five points separate these two sides in the table and the race is now hotting for which team will secure a sixth place finish and qualification into next seasons Champions Cup.

This is a very difficult one to call. Both still have much to play for this season and the Scarlets home record looks to give them a slight advantage heading into the Sunday afternoon clash.

Teams to be announced


Zebre v Glasgow Warriors
Zebre are rooted to the bottom of the table with only two wins so far this season, Ulster and Edinburgh the only two sides to lose to the Italians, which were both home games. Only three points separate them from 2nd last Treviso. The fight for who will finish higher and achieve Champions Cup qualification looks like going to the wire.

Glasgow will be heart broken by their Champions Cup exit to Bath earlier in the year. The campaign started so brightly with two wins from two but only one win in the last three wasn’t enough as they just missed out on a quarterfinal spot. The Pro 12 takes on added significance now and the Warriors are well placed in 2nd to go won better this season and win the competition. Their away record makes for difficult reading for Glasgow fans with no wins in the last four in all competitions.

Glasgow will be looking to right the wrong from the last few games and will travel to Italy looking to put in a performance they can built on. Expect the title challengers to make short work of Zebre and achieve a comfortable win.

Teams to be announced

Leinster Rugby v Newport Gwent Dragons
Leinster has an unbeaten record so far in 2015 and has won their last twenty-one games in the RDS Stadium. Their record against Welsh opposition is also very impressive as have only lost once in their last nineteen games. A formidable record the away side must overcome given that Leinster has also won the last eight meetings between the two.

The Dragons have a better recent record on the road than they do at home which will offer a small level of comfort as they head into this hugely testing contest. They are third last in the table, with only the quite inadequate Italians sides.

This one looks like far too big an ask for the traveling contingent and with the likes of Irish internationals Luke Fitzgerald, Dave Kearney and Richardt Strauss looking to catch the eye of Joe Schmidt if they are involved it seems like an insurmountable challenge.

Teams to be announced