Campagnaro gets Sandy Park bow

Exeter Chiefs newcomer Michele Campagnaro will get his first taste of rugby action at Sandy Park when he lines up for Italy in their final Pool D match of this year’s Rugby World Cup against Romania at Sandy Park tomorrow (2:30pm).

Head coach Jacques Brunel has made just two changes to the starting line-up that lost 16-9 to Ireland last Sunday.

After making his comeback from injury in the Ireland match, captain Sergio Parisse drops out of the match-day 23, and is replaced in the back row by Alessandro Zanni.

In the absence of 114-test Parisse, the starting line-up has a total of 576 caps, the lowest for Italy in a RWC since the run-on team (533) in the 31-5 win over Portugal at RWC 2007.

In terms of average age, at 27 years 201 days it is also Italy's youngest RWC starting XV since RWC 2007 and the 18-16 final pool-match defeat by Scotland (27 years, 133 days). Without Parisse and hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, who still has not recovered from a thigh muscle injury, lock Quintin Geldenhuys will take over as captain.

Geldenhuys will be the 11th player to captain Italy in a RWC match, but has already led Italy three times, in tests against Fiji, Samoa and Japan in June 2014. Italy captains have scored tries in the previous two RWCs, Parisse in 2011 (2) and Alessandro Troncon in 2007, so perhaps the armband will bring Geldenhuys some luck and his first test try for Italy. Only Salvatore Perugini (83) has played more tests for Italy without scoring a point.

The other change is Tommaso Benvenuti who comes in at inside centre for Gonzalo Garcia, which he also did after just three minutes of the 16-9 defeat by Ireland. Those minutes were the only previous test rugby Benvenuti and Campagnaro, who signed for the Chiefs this summer from Treviso on a two-year deal.

Alberto De Marchi, who joined the squad at the start of the week as an injury replacement for Martin Castrogiovanni, could make his RWC debut if he gets off the bench. He is the only player in Italy's match-day 23 who has not played any RWC 2015 minutes so far.

Alongside him on the bench is Valerio Bernabo, the only player in Italy's 23 now who played the last time Italy took on Romania in a test, the 24-18 defeat at RWC 2007.

The only other player who was involved then for Italy is starting prop Matias Aguero, but he was an unused replacement in 2007.

ITALY

1. Matias Aguero

2. Andrea Manici

3. Lorenzo Cittadini

4. Quintin Geldenhuys (capt)

5. Josh Furno

6. Francesco Minto

7. Simone Favaro

8. Alessandro Zanni

9. Edoardo Gori

10. Tommaso Allan

11. Giovanbattista Venditti

12. Tommaso Benvenuti

13. Michele Campagnaro

14. Leonardo Sarto

15. Luke McLean


Replacements:

16. Davide Giazzon

17. Alberto De Marchi

18. Dario Chistolini

19. Valerio Bernabò

20. Samuela Vunisa

21. Guglielmo Palazzani

22. Carlo Canna

23. Enrico Bacchin