Thursday 23 February 2017 10:51, UK
Italy coach Conor O'Shea has made four changes to the side that suffered a record 63-10 defeat to Ireland for this Sunday's daunting Six Nations clash against England at Twickenham.
The most significant sees Tommaso Allan make his first start of the tournament at fly-half, replacing Carlo Canno who drops to the bench - one of three changes to the Azzurri back-line.
Exeter Chiefs centre Michele Campagnaro, who came on as a late replacement in the home defeats to Wales and Ireland, starts in midfield in place of Tommaso Benvenuti.
Giulio Bisegni comes off the bench to start in place of Angelo Esposito on the wing.
There is one change to the pack with flanker Abraham Steyn replacing Maxime Mbanda.
Italy have never beaten England in 22 previous encounters.
O'Shea said: "We have had to change, but the changes are for the future. One of the big things is to stop feeling sorry for ourselves in games - to stop feeling sorry for ourselves about where we are and focus on performance."
Allan, whose father is Scottish - his uncle played nine times for Scotland - is expecting a tough afternoon.
"England are one of the best teams in the world, second only to the All Blacks," said Allan. "They are a very clinical side that makes few mistakes. It's a big challenge for us. We will have to avoid the same mistakes we made against Ireland.
"We want to give a good account of ourselves at Twickenham and remain competitive for 80 minutes."
Italy: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Giulio Bisegni, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Luke McLean, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Edoardo Gori, 1 Andrea Lovotti, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 4 Marco Fuser; 5 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 6 Abraham Steyn, 7 Simone Favaro, 8 Sergio Parisse.
Replacements: 16 Ornel Gega, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 George Biagi, 20 Maxime Mbanda, 21 Giorgio Bronzini, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Tommaso Benvenuti.
