Parisse Leads Italy Against England

Sergio Parisse’s amazing career with Italy continues on Sunday. The Argentine native will lead the Azzurri against England in Rome. The fixture is an opening round clash in the 2018 Six Nations.

Parisse leads the team from no 8. He will be joined in the back-row by Renato Giammarioli, and Sebastian Negri. An additional flanker will start, doing so in the second-row. That player being Alessandro Zanni who will earn his 100th cap. Parisse is to earn his 130th.

Italian Head Coach Conor O’Shea has made a notable seven alterations to the last line-up that Italy fielded. Their previous outing was against South Africa in November. They also faced Argentina that month with Los Pumas winning for just the second time in the year.

Changes of note can be spotted in the backs. At fullback Matteo Minozzi takes over from Jayden Hayward, Tommaso Allan starts ahead of Carlo Canna while Tommaso Benvenuti does so for Angelo Espositoon the wing. Allan is to partner Marcello Violi in the halves.

ITALY
15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Sergio Parisse (capt.), 7 Renato Giammarioli, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lovotti

Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 George Biagi, 20 Maxime Mbanda’, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Jayden Hayward