TURIN, Italy :Italy prop Marco Riccioni has replaced Simone Ferrari as head coach Gonzalo Quesada unsurprisingly named a largely unchanged side for Saturday’s Autumn International against South Africa in Turin after last weekend’s win over Australia.
Ferrari drops to the bench as Quesada sticks with a winning team following the 26-19 comeback victory against Australia last Saturday in Udine, as Italy go in search of their second-ever win over the Springboks.
Louis Lynagh, who scored two tries against Australia, and Monty Ioane, who downed the other, remain on the wings, while Paolo Garbisi’s 100 per cent kicking record in last weekend’s win sees the flyhalf retain his place.
Italy’s only previous victory in 18 meetings with South Africa came in 2016 and Ferrari is one of two players in the current squad who featured in that triumph in Florence along with flyhalf Tommy Allan who is also among the replacements.
The Italians suffered two defeats, 42-24 and 45-0, in their two-test series in South Africa in July, and flanker David Odiase, who made his only two previous appearances in those losses, is on the bench.
Captain Michele Lamaro and flanker Sebastian Negri, who missed the Australia win, are still injured, with centre Juan Ignacio Brex again wearing the captain’s armband. South-African born flanker Ross Vintcent is also in Italy’s side.
South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has made 11 changes to the side that beat France 32-17 last Saturday after going down to 14 men in the first half.
Team:
15-Ange Capuozzo, 14-Louis Lynagh, 13-Juan Ignacio Brex, 12-Tommaso Menoncello, 11-Monty Ioane, 10-Paolo Garbisi, 9-Stephen Varney, 8-Lorenzo Cannone, 7-Manuel Zuliani, 6-Ross Vintcent, 5-Andrea Zambonin, 4-Niccolo Cannone, 3-Marco Riccioni, 2-Giacomo Nicotera, 1-Danilo Fischetti
Replacements:
16-Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17-Mirco Spagnolo, 18-Simone Ferrari, 19-Federico Ruzza, 20-Riccardo Favretto, 21-David Odiase, 22-Martin Page-Relo, 23-Tommaso Allan
