www.independent.co.uk
Italy's historic Six Nations victory over Scotland in Edinburgh last weekend has come at a price, with coach Pierre Berbizier losing three key players for the match against Wales in Rome on 10 March.
Martin Castrogiovanni, Fabio Ongaro and Andrea Masi are all injured and so miss the chance to help the Azzurri seek only their fifth victory since joining the Championship in 2000.
The Leicester prop Castrogiovanni injured a knee early on at Murrayfield where Italy went on to record their first away win in the tournament. He is set to be out of action for five weeks, which means he also misses the final match, against Ireland in Rome on 17 March. His place has been taken by Overmach Parma's Fabio Staibano.
The Saracens' hooker Ongaro suffered a neck injury after coming on as a replacement for Carlo Festuccia and it is not yet known for how long he will be out, but he has been replaced by Calvisano's Leonardo Ghiraldini while the Biarritz centre Masi, who sustained a fractured cheekbone shortly before half-time in the match, he will undergo surgery later this week. He has been replaced by Ezio Galon of Parma.
Wales, the only other country to have lost to Italy in the Championship when they went down 22-30 in Rome four years ago, will discover today whether their centre Gavin Henson needs surgery on a knee injury. If he does, it would sideline him for three weeks, meaning he misses the remaining matches against Italy and England.
The BBC last night knocked back suggestions that it wants to change the Six Nations schedule to incorporate a Friday night kick-off in future.
"There is absolutely no foundation in the suggestion. Friday night is one of our key light entertainment nights," a spokesman for the BBC said last night, "not really a sports night. We have still got two years of the current contract to run and we are not going to be looking for any scheduling changes at the moment."
Northampton have signed former France international No 8 Christian Labit from Narbonne to the end of the season. He is likely to make his debut against Gloucester on Saturday.
The Scotland and Edinburgh back-row forward Simon Taylor has signed a deal with Stade Français for the next three seasons.
Argentina are keen to join Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations and have made representations at governmental level.
[Modificato da Giambuca 28/02/2007 13.07]
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And what exactly is a dream?
And what exactly is a joke?
Addio Syd.
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