Interim Head Coach, Franco Smith, has gone with the same starting XV from their 22-35 second round defeat to France in Paris. There is one change on the bench with utility forward Marco Lazzaroni coming in for lock Federico Ruzza.

This will be the first home fixture for the Italian side in the 2020 championship, with remaining fixtures to come against Ireland in Dublin and England at tomorrow’s venue, the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

“We have shown improvements against France. We want to make an important performance in front of our fans at the Olympic Stadium showing everyone our game and our true potential, ”
Interim Head Coach, Franco Smith

?#Italrugby

Il XV in campo per #ITAvSCO, primo match degli Azzurri allo Stadio Olimpico nel @SixNationsRugby 2020

? Kick off sabato 22 febbraio alle 15.15
? @dmaxitalia #insieme #rugbypassioneitaliana pic.twitter.com/LBcJZWM2Os

— Italrugby (@Federugby) February 20, 2020

Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Carlo Canna, 11 Matteo Minozzi, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Callum Braley; 1 Andrea Lovotti, 2 Luca Bigi (c), 3 Giosue Zilocchi, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Niccolo Cannone, 6 Jake Polledri, 7 Sebastian Negri, 8 Abraham Steyn.

Replacements: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Maro Riccioni, 19 Maro Lazzaroni, 20 Dean Budd, 21 Giovanni Licata, 22 Guglielmo Palazzani, 23 Giulio Bisegni.