Aironi v Edinburgh: Teams

Former Saracens centre Rodd Penney will make his Aironi sebut against Edinburgh at Stadio Zaffanella on Saturday.

Penney, who joins fellow former Sarries Fabio Ongaro and Matias Aguero at the outfit, will partner Gilberto Pavan in midfield.

And Penney is relishing the chance to play for the Magners League new boys.

"I'm pretty excited to be here, Fabio and Matias are helping me," he said.

"All the players in the team are very friendly and really welcoming. I'm very happy to have the opportunity to play this week and hopefully against Edinburgh we go really well and we can play some exciting rugby".

"I think what we have to do is just playing with a lot of intensity. Italian teams are known for being very physical and starting the game very fast, so hopefully we can do that. We should maintain that rhythm for the whole game and we can put together a very good performance."

Changes

Aironi have also named Ludovic Mercier and Tito Tebaldi at half-back, with Nick Williams, Carlo Del Fava, Alberto De Marchi, Salvatore Perugini and Ongaro coming into the pack.

Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat has made five changes to his line up following the 32-24 success against Leinster.

Jim Thompson, Fraser McKenzie, Alan MacDonald, Greig Laidlaw and Kyle Traynor are all called into the starting XV for the trip to Italy.

And Moffat insists it is vital that his side build on the win over Leinster.

"This weekend is about improvement," he said. "We realise Aironi are searching for their first win but they will be tough opposition, particularly up front. We simply cannot afford to drop back into some of the individual errors we made in the first three league games."

Aironi: 15 Julien Laharrague; 14 Giulio Toniolatti, 13 Rodd Penney, 12 Gilberto Pavan, 11 Danwel Demas, 10 Ludovic Mercier, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Nick Williams. 7 Josh Sole, 6 Andrea Benatti, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys (c), 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Salvatore Perugini, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Alberto De Marchi
Replacements: 16 Roberto Santamaria, 17 Andrea De Marchi, 18 Luca Redolfini, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Jaco Erasmus, 21 Pablo Canavosio, 22 Gabriel Pizarro, 23 Riccardo Bocchino.

Edinburgh: 15 Jim Thompson, 14 Mark Robertson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Alex Grove, 11 Tim Visser, 10 David Blair, 9 Greig Laidlaw, 8 Roddy Grant, 7 Alan MacDonald, 6 Fraser McKenzie, 5 Scott MacLeod, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Kyle Traynor
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 David Young, 19 Craig Hamilton, 20 David Denton, 21 Mike Blair, 22 James King, 23 Tom Brown