Kieran Crowley confirms his Italy squad for Rugby World Cup

Italy have named their Rugby World Cup squad, including exciting wingers Monty Ioane and Paolo Odogwu for their first appearances at the finals, and also selecting Tommaso Allan for his third campaign.

Benetton dominate with 16 of their players selected in a squad of 19 forwards and 14 backs where there are 24 newcomers to the finals.

The average age is 26-and-a-half, with the recently turned 21-year-old Federico Zani of Zebre Parma the youngest, securing inclusion just weeks after his Test debut versus Scotland in the Summer Nations Series.

After taking on Japan next Saturday in Treviso in their final preparation match, the Azzurri will gather in Rome on August 31 ahead of their September 3 trip to Bourgoin, base camp for a tournament that they begin versus Namibia in Saint-Etienne on September 9.

Their other pool matches are against Uruguay in Nice on September 20 and they then play twice in Lyon, against New Zealand on September 29 and then versus host nation France on October 7.

Head coach Kieran Crowley said: "It wasn’t easy to arrive at the choice of the 33 players called up for the Rugby World Cup as all the players who participated in the preparation worked in the best way.

"Making decisions is our job and our responsibility and that is what we did by selecting what we consider the best possible Italy.

“In the final selection, the ability of some athletes, both among the forwards and among the three-quarters, to play more than one role had a significant specific weight, allowing us to expand the choices available to us.”