Italy turn to 142kg Bath giant amid injury crisis for Boks

Italy have named a heavily reshuffled side to face South Africa in Turin on Saturday, with Gonzalo Quesada forced to contend with a lengthy injury list for the Nations Championship clash.

Captain Michele Lamaro, Sebastian Negri, Marco Riccioni, Andrea Zambonin and Tommaso Menoncello are among a host of players unavailable for the meeting with the world champions.

Samuele Locatelli will make his Test debut at openside, joining Lorenzo Cannone and Alessandro Ortombina in the back-row, while Giacomo Nicotera captains the side for only the second time.

There is considerable size on the bench, where 142kg Bath forward Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi is included. The 20-year-old’s only previous Test appearance came against Chile last year, and he now has another chance to impress against the Springboks.

Paolo Garbisi and Alessandro Fusco form the half-back pairing, with Leonardo Marin and Paolo Odogwu in midfield. The centres will be filling in for the absent Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello, who will be sorely missed in northern Italy. Monty Ioane will win his 50th cap on the left wing, with Ange Capuozzo on the right and Mirko Belloni at full-back.

Ferrari and Allan are the only two survivors in the matchday squad from Italy’s famous victory over South Africa in Florence in 2016.

Saturday’s fixture will be the 20th meeting between the nations and the second in succession staged in Turin. Italy then face Argentina in Genoa and Fiji in Udine before travelling to Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium for the Nations Championship Finals Weekend later this month.

Italy XV: 15 Mirko Belloni; 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco; 1 Muhamed Hasa, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (c), 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 8 Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan.