Scotland v Italy: Italian squad determined

Coach Jacques Brunel has made ten changes, most in response to the team’s insipid display against Samoa last week which ended in a 39-10 defeat in Nelspruit’s Mbombela Stadium, which followed a 44-10 loss to the Springboks in Durban. They include call-ups for three debutants: Leonard Sarto, who starts on the right wing opposite Sean Lamont, second row Leandro Cedaro and replacement scrum-half Alberto Chillon. Lucas Morisi, Alberto Sgarbi, Alberto Di Bernardo, Tobias Botes, Robert Barbieri, Joshua Furno, Davide Giazzon and Matias Aguero all return to the starting line-up.

“The attitude out on the field against Samoa was not right,” said Brunel, “so we are changing things. There are players who have not played much on this tour, but had a good impact on the game against South Africa, so it is right that we see them again, and there are three debutants [Cedaro, Chillon, Tailor] that on this tour have not yet found space and it is fair to give them a chance.

“Against South Africa in the second half, we played for almost half an hour with the intensity that I expect from our team, but against Samoa we had neither the intensity nor the reactions we expect. We knew that the breakdown and our effectiveness in that part of the game would be decisive against the Samoans, but that is where we lost the game, so I expect a bit improvement there.”

It will be interesting to see how the Azzurri bounce back against a side who inflicted a record Six Nations defeat, 34-10, on them in the spring.