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Tommaso Allan’s shoulder injury has handed Carlo Canna the chance to impress when Italy take on France in the Six Nations on Saturday.
Allan dislocated his shoulder during the second half of Italy’s 36-15 defeat to England last time out, a result that leaves Conor O’Shea’s side bottom of the table still waiting for their first point.
With his first-choice fly-half ruled out, O’Shea has turned to Zebre’s Canna – who replaced Allan against England – to try and dictate the clash with France in Rome, where a bonus-point win would move them level with their opponents.
Canna is one of three changes made by O’Shea, with Angelo Esposito coming in on the wing for Giulio Bisegni and experienced hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini starting ahead of Ornel Gega.
La vostra #Italrugby per #ITAvFRA di sabato 11 marzo all’Olimpico di Roma pic.twitter.com/hDHASh2ctU
— Italrugby (@Federugby) March 7, 2017
The eyes of the rugby world will be on Italy’s performance after their innovative ‘no-ruck’ tactics at Twickenham that drew the ire of Eddie Jones and perplexed England for the opening 40 minutes.
Eventually England worked out a plan to negate the tactics and finished with a flourish to maintain their unbeaten run.
Italy: Edoardo Padovani, Angelo Esposito, Michele Campagnaro, Luke McLean, Giovanballista Venditti, Carlo Canna, Edoardo Gori; Andrea Lovotti, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Lorenzo Cittadini, Marco Fuser, Dries van Scalkwyk, Braam Steyn, Simone Favaro, Sergio Parisse.
Replacements: Tommaso D’Apice, Sami Panico, Dario Chistolini, George Biagi, Maxime Mbanda, Giorgio Bronzini, Tommasso Benvenuti, Luca Sperandio
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