Zambonin and Vintcent to Face the Springboks with Italy

Exeter Chiefs back rower Ross Vintcent and summer signing Andrea Zambonin have been named in the Italy squad to face the Springboks.

Head coach Gonzalo Quesada has named his side that will face South Africa on Saturday 5 July at 17:10 CEST at the Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

It will be the 17th meeting between the two teams, the eighth in South Africa with the only Azzurri victory dated 19 November 2016 at the Stadio Franchi in Florence.

There are seven changes in the starting line-up compared to the Test Match won in Namibia on June 27. The centre partnership is formed by Menoncello and Zanon with the latter returning to the match list after the match against the All Blacks in Turin. The Zebre branded midfield is confirmed with Da Re and Fusco.

On the bench, together with debutants Dimcheff, Canali and Odiase, ready to also take over are Spagnolo, Hasa, Vintcent, Garbisi and Bertaccini.

Italy:

15 Jacopo TRULLA (Zebre Parma, 15 caps)

14 Louis LYNAGH (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps)

13 Tommaso MENONCELLO (Benetton Rugby, 29 caps)

12 Marco ZANON (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)

11 Simone GESI (Zebre Parma, 4 caps)

10 Giacomo DA RE (Zebre Parma, 3 caps)

9 Alessandro FUSCO (Zebre Parma, 19 caps)

8 Lorenzo CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 29 caps)

7 Manuel ZULIANI (Benetton Rugby, 33 caps)

6 Alessandro IZEKOR (Benetton Rugby, 4 caps)

5 Andrea ZAMBONIN (Exeter Chiefs, 10 caps)

4 Niccolò CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 53 caps) – captain

3 Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 64 caps)

2 Tommaso DI BARTOLOMEO (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)

1 Danilo FISCHETTI (Northampton Saints, 53 caps)

Replacements:

16. Pablo DIMCHEFF (Colomiers Rugby, debutant)

17 Mirco SPAGNOLO (Benetton Rugby, 15 caps)

18 Muhamed HASA (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)

19 Matteo CANALI (Zebre Parma, debutant)

20 Ross VINTCENT (Exeter Chiefs, 15 caps)

21 David ODIASE (Zebre Parma, debutant)

22 Alessandro GARBISI (Benetton Rugby, 16 caps)

23 Giulio BERTACCINI (Zebre Parma, 2 caps)