Italy dealt double injury blow but receive ban boost

Italy will be without winger Monty Ioane and lock Dino Lamb for their camp ahead of their Guinness Six Nations round three fixture with France in Rome.

The pair, who were both part of the recent victory over Wales, will not attend the camp in the Italian capital when they assemble on Sunday.

A knee injury has meant that Ioane has become the latest member of Gonzalo Quesada's back three injury list, which also includes Louis Lynagh and the versatile Paolo Odogwu. Rovigo's 21-year-old full-back, and former Italy U20 international, Mirko Belloni has been called into camp as cover.

Harlequins lock Lamb, who had a 20-minute cameo against Wales that included a yellow card, has picked up a knee problem.

Italy have not indicated how long the pair will be out of action for.

While this is a blow for the Azzurri, they have been boosted by the return of loosehead prop Mirco Spagnolo, who had been serving the final two weeks of a five-week ban at the beginning of the Championship. The 24-year-old featured in every match for Italy last year.

Italy squad

Props

Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby, 61 caps)

Danilo Fischetti (Zebre Parma, 49 caps)

Marco Riccioni (Saracens, 32 caps)

Luca Rizzoli (Zebre Parma, 2 caps)

Mirco Spagnolo (Benetton Rugby, 11 caps)

Giosuè Zilocchi (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps)

Hookers

Tommaso Di Bartolomeo (Zebre Parma, uncapped)

Gianmarco Lucchesi (Toulon, 30 caps)

Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Francais, 30 caps)

Second-rows

Matteo Canali (Zebre Parma, uncapped)

Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 49 caps)

Riccardo Favretto (Benetton Rugby, 4 caps)

Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby, 61 caps)

Back-rows

Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 25 caps)

Alessandro Izekor (Benetton Rugby, 4 caps)

Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby, 45 caps)

Sebastian Negri (Benetton Rugby, 60 caps)

Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs, 11 caps)

Manuel Zuliani (Benetton Rugby, 29 caps)

Scrum-halves

Alessandro Garbisi (Benetton Rugby, 15 caps)

Martin Page-Relo (Lyon, 15 caps)

Stephen Varney (Vannes, 30 caps)

Fly-halves

Tommaso Allan (Perpignan, 83 caps)

Paolo Garbisi (Toulon, 44 caps)

Leonardo Marin (Benetton Rugby, 13 caps)

Centres

Giulio Bertaccini (Valorugby Emilia, 1 cap)

Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton Rugby, 43 caps)

Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton Rugby, 25 caps)

Marco Zanon (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)

Back three

Ange Capuozzo (Toulouse, 25 caps)

Matt Gallagher (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)

Simone Gesi (Zebre Parma, 2 caps)

Jacopo Trulla (Zebre Parma, 13 caps)

Invited

Mirko Belloni (Rovigo, uncapped)

Injured

Monty Ioane (Lyon, 37 caps)

Dino Lamb (Harlequins, 11 caps)

Louis Lynagh (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps)

Paolo Odogwu (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)

Andrea Zambonin (Zebre Parma, 9 caps)