Argentine No 8 Looks to Lead Italy to Victory over Scotland

Argentine No 8 Looks to Lead Italy to Victory over Scotland. Sergio Parisse will lead the Italians in the Scottish capital on Saturday. Head coach Conor O’Shea has made four changes to his starting line-up for the final round Six Nations match.

Parisse is to be joined in the back-row by Maxime Mata Mbanda. He taked over at blindside flanker from Simone Favaro. In the second-row George Biagi will start ahead of Andries Van Schalkwyk while Ornel Gega replaced Leonardo Ghiraldini at hooker.

The one change in the backs sees Tommaso Benvenuti replacing star Exeter Chiefs center Michele Campagnaro. Australian Luke McLean is the only foreign born back in the team.

Italy are targetting their first win of the 2017 competition. Remarkably the Italians last win was against South Africa in November. Since then the Central Europeans have been overwhelmed, including alosing at home against Tonga.

ITALY
15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Luke McLean, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (Capt.), 7 Abraham Steyn, 6 Maxime Mata Mbanda, 5 George Biagi, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Ornel Gega, 1 Andrea Lovotti

Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Sami Panico, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Francesco Minto, 22 Marcello Violi, 23 Luca Sperandio