Brex starts in Italian mid-field vs Ireland

Juan Ignacio Brex will start in the Italian mid-field vs Ireland. The Argentine has been named at outside center for Italy in their round three Six Nations fixture in Rome.

The match will be Brex’s third start for Italy. He started in both prior matches. The first was his test debut against France in Rome and the second was against England in London.

Italy are chasing their first win of the campaign and their first since beating Scotland in February 2015. The losing streak has critics; albeit, Italy’s young side would appear to be on the right track.

Missing from the team is Italy’s most capped player of all-time. Sergio Parisse may return for the remaining matches against Scotland and Wales. Parisse moved to Italy from Argentina at the age of 17.

ITALY
1 Andrea Lovotti, 2 Luca Bigi (capt.), 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Marco Lazzaroni, 5 David Sisi, 6 Sebastián Negri, 7 Johan Meyer, 8 Michele Lamaro, 9 Stephen Varney, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Monty Ioane, 12 Carlo Canna, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 14 Luca Sperandio, 15 Jacopo Trulla

Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Cherif Traoré, 18 Giousué Zilocchi, 19 Nicolló Cannone, 20 Maxime Mbandá, 21 Callium Braley, 22 Federico Mori, 23 Mattia Bellini