Scotland v Italy: Teams

Kellock: Chance to cement captaincy

Scotland have made 14 changes for Saturday's final World Cup warm-up match against Italy at Murrayfield.

Centre Graeme Morrison is the sole survivor in the starting XV from the 10-6 win over Ireland two weeks ago.

The match represents the final opportunity for head coach Andy Robinson to select his 30-man World Cup squad, which will be announced on Monday.

Second row Alastair Kellock will lead the side as Robinson continues to contemplate who will wear the armband in the World Cup.

"It is huge for me to get the captaincy back - in fact it is huge just to be starting," said Kellock, who captained Scotland through this year's Six Nations.

Leaders

"But I am not thinking about who will be skipper in the World Cup. The coach will make his decision and reveal it when he announces the squad on Monday.

"There are leaders all over this team, which makes it even more special to be the guy chosen to wear the armband."

Kellock is joined in the second row by Nathan Hines, with Alasdair Dickinson, Scott Lawson and Moray Low in the front row.

The back row is formed by Kelly Brown, Richie Vernon and John Barclay.

Two players who have recovered from injury have been included, with Chris Cusiter (calf) and Euan Murray (Achilles) named on the bench.

"Chris is fit now and this gives him the chance to put his hand up and be back in the squad," Robinson said.

"They weren't fit for the Ireland game and I said that for them to be involved in the tournament 30 they had to be involved this weekend.

"If they weren't involved this weekend I wouldn't have taken them to New Zealand, so it was one of those stipulations in terms of training - they had to get themselves ready to play against Italy.

"Euan is fit to have started, and Chris wouldn't be in the 22 either if he couldn't have started, but again it's about competition for places and people getting in the starting team."

Nick De Luca joins Morrison in the centre, with the back three formed by Simon Danielli, Max Evans and Rory Lamont.

Edinburgh scrum-half Mike Blair is paired with Dan Parks at half-back.

Changes

Italy coach Nick Mallett has made 11 changes to his starting XV with only captain Sergio Parisse, wing Tommaso Benvenuti, and forwards Leonardo Ghiraldini and Andrea Lo Cicero keeping their places after the Azzurri were given a major scare in a 31-24 win over by Japan last weekend.

Andrea Masi returns at full-back having not featured since being taken off injured after only half an hour of the RBS Six Nations clash between the sides in Edinburgh five months ago.

Mirco Bergamasco is also back on the left wing after missing last Saturday's game, in which Japan recovered from going 14-0 down to lead 17-14 at half-time before Italy eventually prevailed.

Mallett said he had shuffled his line-up in order to give his squad as much game-time as possible.

"If you're part of the 30 players who are going to the World Cup it's important to feel like part of group and to do so you must play," Mallett said.

"If the youngsters play well it will be very good for their confidence for the games against Russia and the USA.

"We'll only know after the games against Japan and Scotland if we're ready, the southern hemisphere teams are advanced because they're playing in the Tri-Nations at a very high level.

"The northern hemisphere teams need these games to get some game time practice."

Scotland: R Lamont (Toulon); M Evans (Castres), N De Luca (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow), S Danielli (Ulster); D Parks (Cardiff Blues), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Dickinson (Sale), S Lawson (Gloucester), M Low (Glasgow), N Hines (Clermont Auvergne), A Kellock (Glasgow, capt), K Brown (Saracens), J Barclay (Glasgow), R Vernon (Sale).
Replacements: D Hall (Glasgow), E Murray (Newcastle), R Gray (Glasgow), R Rennie (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Glasgow), R Jackson (Glasgow), N Walker (Ospreys).

Italy: A Masi; T Benvenuti, G Canale, G Garcia, M Bergamasco; L Orquera, F Semenzato; A Lo Cicero, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, C Del Fava, C van Zyl, P Derbyshire, R Barbieri, S Parisse (capt).
Replacements: T D'Apice, L Cittadini, M Bortolami, A Zanni, P Canavosio, R Bocchino, M Pratichetti.