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Italy fly-halves face-off in Treviso

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Italy’s top fly-halves will go head to head in Treviso as Carlo Canna’s Zebre seek revenge against Tommaso Allan’s Benetton.

Italy’s top fly-halves will go head to head in Treviso as Carlo Canna’s Zebre seek revenge against Tommaso Allan’s Benetton.

Benetton ground out a tense 10-8 win over their rivals in Parma last weekend and Italian rugby fans will be hoping that sparks fly as they prepare for the rematch on Saturday.

Conor O’Shea will have an eye on the game too with Italy’s opening Guinness Six Nations fixture against Scotland just six weeks away and a host of his Italian internationals taking to the field.

The key battle in this one could well be at fly-half with Benetton’s Allan and Zebre’s Canna facing off against one another.

Allan was preferred to Canna during Italy’s November Tests but both fly-halves will be hoping to impress their international head coach and demonstrate their capabilities ahead of the Championship.

Elsewhere O’Shea’s two full backs will go head to head as Benetton’s Jayden Hayward and Zebre’s Edoardo Padovani face off, as both hope to impress with February in mind.

In fact, 33 of O’Shea’s 37-man Autumn Internationals squad currently ply their domestic trade at either Benetton or Zebre.

The performances out on the pitch in Treviso could serve as the best indicator yet as to how well Italy are prepared to compete for the Guinness Six Nations trophy in six weeks time.

Prop Marco Riccioni, who is going in search of his first cap for Italy, said: “The first round was a tough match, we know that we made a lot of mistakes but during the week we worked to avoid repeating them.

“During the home game won against the Harlequins the support of our fans has been crucial, we hope it will be so tomorrow.”