Marco Zanon handed debut as Italy change five for Six Nations game vs France
Last Updated: 14/03/19 9:24pm
Marco Zanon will make his Italy debut in Saturday's Six Nations game against fellow strugglers France in Rome.
The 21-year-old replaces injured Wasps centre Michele Campagnaro in the Azzurri midfield and will partner Benetton team-mate Luca Morisi.
Gloucester's Jake Polledri is promoted to the starting line-up after coming off the bench in last weekend's defeat to England while David Sisi, Tiziano Pasquali and Leonardo Ghiraldini also come into the pack.
Sixth-placed Italy are hoping to avoid another whitewash in the competition while France are one place above them with six points.
"Our focus will be on ourselves and on trying to play our best rugby," said Italy head coach Conor O'Shea.
"We want to finish the competition with a great performance at the Stadio Olimpico."
Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Marco Zanon, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Angelo Esposito, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Tito Tebaldi; 1 Andrea Lovotti, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 4 David Sisi, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Abraham Steyn, 7 Jake Polledri, 8 Sergio Parisse.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Cherif Traore, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Sebastian Negri, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 Luca Sperandio
