Italy Team for Scotland Clash

Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Paul Derbyshire, 5 Cornelius Van Zyl, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini, 18 Marco Bortolami, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Matteo Pratichetti.

Interesting selection - very strong front row, decent boiler room, slightly weaker than expected backrow (altho clearly bags of talent to come off the bench), and backline pretty much as anticipated. Should be a cracking game

Good side, they are at about 75-80% of what I thought was their 1st 15. Surprised at the back-row but again its a game to prepare for the RWC, winning or losing is not so critical. Their front row can still gives ours a torrid time if we don't buckle down. Is still think Scotland by 9, wish I could go.

Backrow isn't as weak as you think, Barbieri is a pain at openside. He'll be in every ruck making a nuisence of himself. Really plays on the edge of the rules and slows down opponents ball no end. I'd expect him to either start or be on the bench for all the big matches. Paul Derbyshire is a bit of an average work horse though. If Zanni replaces him the backrow will be pretty damn good though the rest of the bench isn't that great.

Backline look decent as well and what a name in the second row, Cornelius Van Zyl.