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Pembrokeshire-born Stephen Varney returns to Italy side to face Wales

By PA
(Photo by Giampiero Sposito/Getty Images)

Gloucester scrum-half Stephen Varney will return to the Italy team for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash against Wales in Rome.

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Varney missed Italy’s match with Ireland last month after suffering an injury during the warm-up.

Varney, who was born in Wales but qualifies for Italy through his mother, now returns as one of five changes.

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Eddie Jones & Owen Farrell England vs France Six Nations Press Conference

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Eddie Jones & Owen Farrell England vs France Six Nations Press Conference

He resumes his half-back partnership with Paolo Garbisi, while wing Mattia Bellini replaces an injured Luca Sperandio.

Elsewhere, switches in the pack see starts for props Danilo Fischetti and Giosue Zilocchi, in addition to lock Niccolo Cannone.

Italy host Wales after suffering comprehensive Six Nations defeats this season against France, England and Ireland, while their last victory in the tournament came six years ago when they toppled Scotland at Murrayfield.

Italy team: J Trulla (Calvisano); M Bellini (Zebre), J-I Brex (Benetton), C Canna (Zebre), M Ioane (Benetton); P Garbisi (Benetton), S Varney (Gloucester); D Fischetti (Zebre), L Bigi (Zebre, capt), G Zilocchi (Zebre), N Cannone (Benetton), D Sisi (Zebre), S Negri (Benetton), J Meyer (Zebre), M Lamaro (Benetton).

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Replacements: O Fabiani (Zebre), A Lovotti (Zebre), M Riccioni (Benetton), M Lazzaroni (Benetton), M Mbanda (Zebre), M Violi (Zebre), F Mori (Calvisano), E Padovani (Benetton).

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A
AM 10 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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