Nick Mallet announces Italy match day 22 squad for 2011 Rugby World Cup opener against Wallabies
Italian national Rugby Union team, commonly known as the Azzurri’s, has announced their match day squad for their 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) opener against the Wallabies. Azzurri’s head coach Nick Mallet listed his squad for their weekend encounter against
2011 Tri Nations champions on Friday, September 9.
Azzurri’s and Wallabies will lock horns at North Harbour Stadium, Auckland on Sunday, September 11.
Mallet’s squad includes two changes in his starting xv, which took part in the Azzurri’s last international test against Scotland last month. The Scots defeated the Azzurri’s 23 – 12 in their pre-world cup warm up match on Saturday, August 20 at Murrayfield
Stadium, Edinburgh.
Mallet made both changes in the forwards back, while the backs pack remained intact. The changes include a change each in the front row and back row forwards.
The team is relatively experienced and their combined caps totals up to 677.
In backs, Andrea Masi will start the match at the fullback position. The duo of Tommaso Benvenuti and Mirco Bergamasco will form the winger combination. Gonzalo Canale and Gonzalo Garcia will start the match at the outside and inside centre positions respectively.
Luciano Orquera and Fabio Semenzato will form the starting halfback pair for the Azzurri’s, as they look forward to change their fortunes in the rugby world’s premier tournament. Orquera will start the match at the fly half position while Semenzato will
start the match at the scrum half position.
Leonardo Ghiraldini has replaced the Fabio Ongaro at the hooker position. Ongaro has been dropped from the match day 22 altogether. Meanwhile Alessandro Zanni has replaced the flanker Paul Derbyshire in the starting xv.
Derbyshire will start the match from the bench.
Mallet has made couple changes in the replacements also. Joshua Furno has been dropped from the match day 22 squad, making way for the Derbyshire. In their second change, Luke McLean will start the match from the bench, on the position vacated by Zanni,
who will start the match. The rest of the reserves lineup remained the same.
Italy’s match day squad for their weekend encounter against the Wallabies consists of,
Starting XV: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 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 Paul Derbyshire, 20 Edoardo Gori, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Luke McLean.
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