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Italy and France have named their teams for the Pool D match at Twickenham on Saturday. Each side are missing key players with injury, with Wesley Fofana out of the French team, and the Italians losing Gonzalo García and, most importantly, captain Sergio Parisse.
The Azzurri will be lead out by Leicester hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, who starts beside Martín Castrogiovanni, set to nudge ahead of Parisse as Italy’s most capped player. Another Argentine born player, Matías Agüero, completes a very experienced front row. Samuela Vunisa steps in for Parisse at no8, while Andrea Masi slots into the midfield in place of Garcia.
France have opted for scrum-expert Rabah Slimani at tighthead, with Damien Chouly a surprise selection over Bernard le Roux on the flank. Alexandre Dumoulin fills in for Fofana at inside centre, and Mathieu Bastareaud has been given the thumbs up outside him. Morgan Parra will have to wait his turn from the bench, with Sébastien Tillous-Borde pairing with Toulon clubmate Frédéric Michalak at the halfbacks.
Les Bleus have historically been the superior side, winning 33 of 36 meetings between the two, but Italy have closed the gap significantly in recent years, taking two of their last five meetings, albeit both in Rome by narrow margins. France won the most recent match by a score of 29-0 during this year’s Six Nations.
FRANCE
1 Eddy Ben Arous 2 Guilhem Guirado 3 Rabah Slimani 4 Pascal Papé 5 Yoann Maestri 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt.) 7 Damien Chouly 8 Louis Picamoles 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde 10 Frédéric Michalak 11 Noa Nakaitaci 12 Alexandre Dumoulin 13 Mathieu Bastareaud 14 Yoann Huget 15 Scott Spedding
16 Benjamin Kayser 17 Vincent Debaty 18 Nicolas Mas 19 Alexandre Flanquart 20 Bernard le Roux 21 Morgan Parra 22 Rémi Talès 23 Gaël Fickou
ITALY
1 Matías Agüero 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (capt.) 3 Martín Castrogiovanni 4 Quintin Geldenhuys 5 Joshua Furno 6 Alessandro Zanni 7 Francesco Minto 8 Samuela Vunisa 9 Edoardo Gori 10 Tommaso Allan 11 Giovanbattista Venditti 12 Andrea Masi 13 Michele Campagnaro 14 Leonardo Sarto 15 Luke McLean
16 Andrea Manici 17 Michele Rizzo 18 Lorenzo Cittadini 19 Valerio Bernabò 20 Simone Favaro 21 Guglielmo Palazzani 22 Carlo Canna 23 Enrico Bacchin
