mens
nations-championship
Italy have named a very changed side in the face South Africa in Turin on Saturday, with Gonzalo Quesada forced to battle a long injury list for Nations Championship conflict.
Captain Michele Lamaro, Sebastian Negri, Marco Riccioni, Andrea Zambonin and Tommaso Menoncello are among a host of players unavailable to face the world champions.
Samuele Locatelli will make his outdoor Test debut, joining Lorenzo Cannone and Alessandro Ortombina in the back row, while Giacomo Nicotera captains the side for only the second time.
He is quite a size on the bench, where he is 142 kg Bath forward Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi is included. The 20-year-old’s only previous appearance at the Test was against Chile last year and now has another chance to impress against the Springboks.
Paolo Garbisi and Alessandro Fusco form the half-back pair, with Leonardo Marino and Paolo Odogwu in midfield. The centers will replace the absent Juan Ignacio Brax and Thomas Menoncello, who will be sorely missed in northern Italy. Monty Ioane will win his 50th cap on the left wing, with Ange Capuozzo on the right and Mirko Belloni at full-back.
Ferrari and Allan are the only two survivors of the match after Italy’s famous victory over South Africa in Florence in 2016.
Saturday’s game will be the 20th meeting between the nations and the second in a row held in Turin. Italy then face Argentina in Genoa and Fiji in Udine before traveling to the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham later this month for the final weekend of the Nations Championship.
Italy XV: 15 Mirko Belloni; 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco; 1 Muhamed Hasa, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (c), 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 8 Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vincent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan.
