Italy v Wales: Teams

Wales will hope to continue their RBS Six Nations revival with another confidence-boosting win against Italy in Rome on Saturday.

The outlook looked gloomy for Warren Gatland's side after they suffered an opening night loss to England at the Millennium Stadium, extending their winless Test streak to eight matches.

But a convincing 24-6 defeat of Scotland last time out has raised hopes and another victory is expected at the Stadio Flaminio.

Captain and hooker Matthew Rees is not expecting an easy ride at a ground where Wales tasted defeat in 2003 and 2007, however.

"It's a great crowd to play in front of, but we know how desperate the Italians will be to get a victory," he said.

"It is great for us, a test of character for certain players who haven't experienced the challenge of playing an international in Rome before."

Rees added: "It's a massive challenge for us out there. They are on the back of a heavy defeat (59-13) by England, so we are going to have the backlash of that.

Crucial

"England haven't done us any favours. Any team who loses by 50-odd points on the road will see a home game next up as being crucial.

"We've won there before, we know what they are going to bring, so it is a matter of matching them physically and making sure we do the hard graft early on for our backs to hopefully score some tries."

James Hook shone at fly-half against Scotland but is moved into the centres - his third different starting position in the last three matches - for Saturday's clash.

He replaces Jonathan Davies, who is unable to take his place in the midfield due to a hamstring injury, while Stephen Jones comes back in at stand-off. Elsewhere, Wales are unchanged.

Italy suffered a heavy defeat at Twickenham in their last match, but had opened their campaign by almost causing an upset against Ireland on home soil.

Coach Nick Mallett has made three changes to his starting XV, with Kris Burton regaining the No.10 jersey from Luciano Orquera, who is named as a replacement.

Among the forwards, Santiago Dellape is brought in to the second row at the expense of Carlo Del Fava and Robert Barbieri replaces Valerio Bernabo in the back row.

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Andrea Masi, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Valerio Bernabo, 19 Manoa Vosawai, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Luciano Orquera, 22 Tommaso Benvenuti.

Wales: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Morgan Stoddart, 13 James Hook, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Ryan Jones 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Matthew Rees (capt), 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 John Yapp, 18 Jonathan Thomas, 19 Josh Turnbull, 20 Tavis Knoyle, 21 Rhys Priestland, 22 Leigh Halfpenny.