Northampton Saints props Danilo Fischetti and Ion Neculai have both been named on the bench for Italy’s Nations Championship clash with World Champions South Africa.
The fixture marks the opening game of Italy’s northern leg of the Nations series as they host South Africa at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday (7 November, kick-off: 11.40am GMT).
Saturday’s match, which will mark Fischetti’s 67th cap for his nation and Neculai’s fifth, will be the twentieth meeting between Italy and South Africa.
Italy squad to face South Africa
15 Mirko Belloni (Zebre Parma, 3 caps)
14 Ange Capuozzo (Stade Toulousain, 32 caps)
13 Paolo Odogwu (Benetton Rugby, 10 caps)
12 Leonardo Marin (Benetton Rugby, 25 caps)
11 Monty Ioane (Lyon, 49 caps)
10 Paolo Garbisi (Perpignan, 57 caps)
9 Alessandro Fusco (Zebre Parma, 27 caps)
1 Muhamed Hasa (Zebre Parma, 11 caps)
2 Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Français, 41 caps) – captain
3 Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby, 73 caps)
4 Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 65 caps)
5 Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby, 74 caps)
6 Alessandro Ortombina (Zebre Parma, 2 caps)
7 Samuele Locatelli (Zebre Parma, uncapped)
8 Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 40 caps)
Replacements:
16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo (Zebre Parma, 12 caps)
17 Danilo Fischetti (Northampton Saints, 66 caps)
18 Ion Neculai (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
19 Enoch Opoku Gyamfi (Bath, 1 cap)
20 Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs, 22 caps)
21 Manuel Zuliani (Benetton Rugby, 43 caps)
22 Stephen Varney (Exeter Chiefs, 39 caps)
23 Tommaso Allan (Zebre Parma, 91 caps)