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O'Shea names the Italian squad of 26 he is taking with him to London
By Online Editors
Sergio Parisse is in line for an Italy recall after Conor O’Shea included him in the 26-strong squad that flies to London on Wednesday to take on England next Saturday.
There were fears that the Italian talisman might not make the cut as the concussion that ruled him out of the Italians’ round three loss to Ireland in Rome also kept him out of Stade Francais’ Top 14 match last weekend.
However, the veteran No8 appears to have made a full recovery as he has made O’Shea’s travelling party.
Instead, the eight players excluded - Oliviero Fabiani, Marco Barbini, Jake Polledri, Jimmy Tuivaiti, Callum Braley, Carlo Canna, Giulio Bisegni and Luca Sperandio - will now return to their clubs.
Italy come into the game at Twickenham on the back of 20 successive Six Nations, but their confidence is high following competitive February performances against Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
(Continue reading below...)
But for a missed kick in the game's final action, they would have secured a losing bonus point in their last outing versus the Irish.
Italy squad (v England)
Props
Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 20 caps)
Andrea LOVOTTI (Zebre Rugby Club, 32 caps) *
Tiziano PASQUALI (Benetton Rugby, 16 caps)
Marco RICCIONI (Benetton Rugby, rookie) *
Cherif TRAORE '(Benetton Rugby, 8 caps) *
Hookers
Luca BIGI (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
Leonardo GHIRALDINI (Stade Toulousian, 102 caps)
Second Row
Dean BUDD (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 10 caps) *
David SISI (Zebre Rugby Club, 3 chaps)
Alessandro ZANNI (Benetton Rugby, 110 caps)
Flanker/No8
Maxime MBANDA '(Zebre Rugby Club, 16 caps) *
Sebastian NEGRI (Benetton Rugby, 14 caps)
Sergio PARISSE (Stade Francais, 136 caps) - captain
Abraham Jurgens STEYN (Benetton Rugby, 28 caps)
Scrum-half
Guglielmo PALAZZANI (Zebras Rugby Club, 30 caps)
Tito TEBALDI (Benetton Rugby, 30 caps)
Out-half
Tommaso ALLAN (Benetton Rugby, 46 caps)
Ian MCKINLEY (Benetton Rugby, 7 caps)
Centres
Michele CAMPAGNARO (Wasps, 41 caps) *
Tommaso CASTELLO (Zebre Rugby Club, 17 caps)
Luca MORISI (Benetton Rugby, 23 caps) *
Marco ZANON (Benetton Rugby, rookie) *
Back three
Angelo ESPOSITO (Benetton Rugby, 18 caps)
Jayden HAYWARD (Benetton Rugby, 15 caps)
Edoardo PADOVANI (Zebre Rugby Club, 18 caps) *
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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