Jacques Brunel has made several changes to the Italy team to take on England at Twickenham this weekend, after their loss to Ireland in round one.
In the pack, Alberto de Marchi starts on the loosehead in place of Matias Aguero, while an immense amount of experience is called into the starting line-up as Marco Bortolami and Mauro Bergamasco replace Josh Furno and Alessandro Zanni respectively.
In the backs, Andrea Masi moves into the centres to replace the injured Michele Campagnaro, with Luke McLean switching to fullback and Giovambattista Venditti taking the empty spot on the wing.
Italy team to play England:
15 Luke McLean, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Giovambattista Venditti, 10 Kelly Haimona, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Francesco Minto, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 George Fabio Biagi, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 Samuela Vunisa, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Giulio Bisegni.
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
2 replies on “Six Nations 2015: Italy team to play England”
Can’t say I follow Italian rugby very closely, but I had assumed that Bortolami and Bergamasco’s best days were behind them.
Venditti, from what little I have seen, appears t be a good player though. I wonder why he wasn’t in the team previously?
It would be easy to predict a glut of tries for England here. I’ll play the cautious card and say they’ll win by 15.