Americas Players in Guinness Pro 12 – Week 2

There are to be a variety of Americas players in the Guinness Pro 12 this coming weekend. Week 2 of the Celtic-Italian League will have a Friday-Saturday split with three matches played on each day.

First up in Week 2 will be the Newport Gwent Dragons against Zebre in a contest that will likely have ramifications on the bottom of the table. Both teams have named reinforced sides with Argentine prop Guillermo Roan named as a reserve for Zebre. In the Scottish capital, Edinburgh welcome Scarlets to the cavernous Murrayfield. The Welsh region will be missing Canadian winger DTH van der Merwe to illness.

Two teams who played well in Week 1 face off in an Irish-Welsh battle. Munster will host Cardiff Blues but at Musgrave Park in Cork, not their spiritual home of Thomond Park in Limerick. US Eagles duo Blaine Scully and Cam Dolan both played in the win over Edinburgh but will miss out this week due to the return of British & Irish Lions stars Alex Cuthbert and Sam Warburton.

Saturday’s matches include a heavyweight tilt at Scotstoun as Glasgow Warriors host Leinster. Neither Greg Peterson nor Djustice Sears-Duru are included by Warriors. Benetton Treviso host Ulster at Stadio Monigo with Callum Black also left out of the Ulster lineup.

Shane O’Leary will be a reserve for Connacht in another big game against Ospreys. Both Tyler Ardron and Jeff Hassler performed well against Zebre and will feature again for the Swansea-based who have named their strongest possible side with the Canadians at no8 and right wing respectively.