Italy make three changes for France clash

Italy head coach Conor O’Shea has made three alterations to his starting line-up for their encounter against France in Paris on Friday.

Two of those come in the front-row as Simone Ferrari and Marco Riccioni start, while experienced back five forward Alessandro Zanni is named at lock.

Following another disappointing Six Nations campaign and a defeat in their opening World Cup warm-up against Ireland, the Azzurri enjoyed a morale-boosting 85-15 triumph over Russia.

Although this match versus Les Bleus will be major step up for the Italians, O’Shea is looking to build on their previous encounter.

“We want to continue from where we left off,” he said. “The victory against Russia gave us some good points but it is in the past now. Our next objective is France.

“It will be a tough match and very interesting for a number of reasons. We want to show our true worth and try to take home a positive result, which will get us closer to peak form with regards to the Rugby World Cup.”

Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Matteo Minozzi, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Abraham Steyn, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Simone Ferrari
Replacements: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Dean Budd, 20 Sebastian Negri, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Tommaso Benvenuti

Date: Friday, August 30
Venue: Stade de France
Kick-off: 21:10 local (20:10 BST, 19:10 GMT)
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistant referees: Luke Pearce (England), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)