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Italy make 11 changes to their team to face England
By Online Editors
Conor O’Shea has made 11 changes to his Italy team to face England this Friday in Newcastle following last weekend’s loss to France in Paris.
Full-back Jayden Hayward will link up with Mattia Bellini and Edoardo Padovani in the back three, the midfield consists of Tommaso Benvenuti and Giulio Bisegni, while at half-back there is a first Test start for Gloucester’s Callum Braley who will partner Carlo Canna.
In the forwards, Braam Steyn keeps his place and will be joined by Jimmy Tuivaiti at No8 and Sebastian Negri. The second row is a combination of David Sisi and Dean Budd, who is skippering the team for the second time this summer after leading the charge in the August match versus Ireland.
The front row consists of Simone Ferrari, Oliviero Fabiani and Nicola Quaglio, while the bench has a split of six forwards and just two backs, Guglielmo Palazzani and Tommaso Allan.
"We will face one of the strongest teams in the world in a match that represents a new step in our preparation towards the World Cup,” said O’Shea after announcing his side.
(Continue reading below...)
“We will have a new opportunity to assess the players' level of fitness in order to figure out later how to continue the path towards the first World Cup game against Namibia.”
ITALY (v England, Friday)
15 Jayden HAYWARD (Benetton Rugby, 18 caps)
14 Mattia BELLINI (Zebre Rugby Club, 18 caps)*
13 Giulio BISEGNI (Zebre Rugby Club, 12 caps)*
12 Tommaso BENVENUTI (Benetton Rugby, 58 caps)*
11 Edoardo PADOVANI (Zebre Rugby Club, 21 caps)*
10 Carlo CANNA (Zebre Rugby Club, 35 caps)
9 Callum BRALEY (Gloucester, 2 caps)
8 Jimmy TUIVAITI (Zebre Rugby Club, 4 caps)
7 Abraham STEYN (Benetton Rugby, 32 caps)
6 Sebastian NEGRI (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
5 Dean BUDD (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps) – captain
4 David SISI (Zebre Rugby Club, 6 caps)
3 Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 25 caps)
2 Oliviero FABIANI (Zebre Rugby Club, 8 caps)
1 Nicola QUAGLIO (Benetton Rugby, 10 caps)*
Replacements
16 Federico ZANI (Benetton Rugby 10 caps)
17 Andrea LOVOTTI (Zebre Rugby Club, 37 caps)*
18 Marco RICCIONI (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)*
19 Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 14 caps)*
20 Alessandro ZANNI (Benetton Rugby, 114 caps)
21 Maxime MBANDA' (Zebre Rugby Club, 17 caps)*
22 Guglielmo PALAZZANI (Zebre Rugby Club, 33 caps)
23 Tommaso ALLAN (Benetton Rugby, 50 caps)
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Latest Comments
I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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