100s for Parisse and Castrogiovanni

Editor

Italian legends Sergio Parisse and Martin Castrogiovanni will both make their 100th appearances for the Azzurri against Fiji.

Italian legends Sergio Parisse and Martin Castrogiovanni will both make their 100th appearances for the Azzurri against Fiji.

Head coach Jacques Brunel has made eight changes to side that were comprehensively beaten by Australia 50-20 last weekend.

Giovambattista Venditti and Tommaso Iannone both start on the wings in place of Tommaso Benvenuti and Leonardo Sarto.

Veteran Gonzalo Canale comes in at outside centre, shifting Luca Morisi infield, whilst Luciano Orquera is the starter at fly-half.

Italy's back-row is unchanged with Parisse leading the side from number eight, but there is a new second row pairing with Valerio Bernabo and Quintin Geldenhuys coming in.

Upfront the experienced Leonardo Ghiraldini starts ahead of Davide Giazzon at hooker.

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Giovambattista Venditti, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Tommaso Iannone, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (capt), 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Valerio Bernabo, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Joshua Furno, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Tobias Botes, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Michele Campagnaro .

Date: Saturday, November 16
Venue: Stadio Zini, Cremona
Kick-off 15:00 local (14:00 GMT)
Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Joaquin Montes (Uruguay)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)