New Zealand Italy coach Kieran Crowley has decided to start winger Simone Gesi in place of veteran Edoardo Padovani to face Scotland on the fifth and final day of the Sixties Tournament. nations. The technician made several other changes. Italy lost 17-29 to Wales last weekend and Crowley said his side hadn’t executed their game plan well enough.
Scrum-half Alessandro Fusco replaces Stephen Varney, while Marco Riccioni replaces Simone Ferrari at prop. Italy are bottom of this edition with just one point after four matches and need a win against Scotland at Murrayfield in their last game of the 2023 Championship to avoid another wooden spoon.
Although Italy have more wins against Scotland than any other Six Nations team, the Azzurri have not beaten the Highland players in their last 11 encounters. La Nazionale will be hoping to repeat their small feat of last year, when they beat Wales 22-21 to secure their first win in Cardiff and end their run of 36 straight defeats in the Tournament.
The composition of Italy:
15-Tommaso Allan, 14-Pierre Bruno, 13-Juan Ignacio Brex, 12-Tommaso Menoncello, 11-Simone Gesi, 10-Paolo Garbisi, 9-Alessandro Fusco, 8-Lorenzo Cannone, 7-Michele Lamaro (c), 6 -Sebastian Negri, 5-Federico Ruzza, 4-Edoardo Iachizzi, 3-Marco Riccioni, 2-Giacomo Nicotera, 1-Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16-Marco Manfredi, 17-Federico Zani, 18-Pietro Ceccarelli, 19-Niccolo Cannone, 20-Giovanni Pettinelli, 21-Manuel Zuliani, 22-Alessandro Garbisi, 23-Luca Morisi
