Northern | US

Italy tweak wider squad as they plan to derail France's Grand Slam bid

Martin Page-Relo attends an Italy captain's run of Quilter Nations Series 2025 at Allianz Stadium on November 14, 2025 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Federugby/Federugby via Getty Images)

Bordeaux-Begles scrum-half Martin Page-Relo has returned to Italy’s 33-man squad ahead of the Guinness Six Nations round three clash with France in Lille on Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 27-year-old has replaced Stephen Varney in the squad, who continues to recover from an adductor injury. Page-Relo has been added to the squad alongside Zebre centre Giulio Bertaccini, who has replaced Simone Gesi.

Neither Varney nor Gesi had featured in Italy’s opening two matches of the Championship – a victory over Scotland in Rome and a narrow defeat to Ireland in Dublin.

VIDEO

Unfortunately for the Azzurri, centre Juan Ignacio Brex remains unavailable for personal reasons.

Gonzalo Quesada’s men now face the daunting task of taking on the reigning champions and the only side that remain unbeaten this year. They will be returning to Lille’s Stade Pierre Mauroy for the fixture, which resulted in a 13-13 draw between the two sides when they met there in 2024.

Fixture
Six Nations
France
33 - 8
Full-time
Italy
All Stats and Data

Italy squad
Prop
Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby, 71 caps)
Danilo Fischetti (Northampton Saints, 60 caps)
Muhamed Hasa (Zebre Parma, 6 caps)
Mirco Spagnolo (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
Giosuè Zilocchi (Benetton Rugby, 24 caps)

Hooker
Tommaso Di Bartolomeeo (Zebre Parma, 8 caps)
Pablo Dimcheff (Colomiers Rugby, 3 caps)
Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Français, 38 caps)

ADVERTISEMENT

Second-row
Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 60 caps)
Riccardo Favretto (Benetton Rugby, 10 caps)
Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby, 69 caps)
Andrea Zambonin (Exeter Chiefs, 16 caps)

Back-row
Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 35 caps)
Alessandro Izekor (Benetton Rugby, 8 caps)
Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby, 51 caps)
Samuele Locatelli (Zebre Parma, esordiente)
David Odiase (Zebre Parma, 4 caps)
Manuel Zuliani (Benetton Rugby, 40 caps)

Scrum-half
Alessandro Fusco (Zebre Parma, 22 caps)
Alessandro Garbisi (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
Martin Page-Relo (Bordeaux, 21 caps)

Fly-half
Giacomo Da Re (Zebre Parma, 6 caps)
Paolo Garbisi (Toulon, 51 caps)

ADVERTISEMENT

Centre
Giulio Bertaccini (Zebre Parma, 4 caps)
Leonardo Marin (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
Damiano Mazza (Zebre Parma, esordiente)
Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton Rugby, 36 caps)
Paolo Odogwu (Benetton Rugby, 8 caps)

Back three
Ange Capuozzo (Stade Toulousain, 31 caps)
Matt Gallagher (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)
Monty Ioane (Lione, 44 caps)
Louis Lynagh (Benetton Rugby, 11 caps)
Lorenzo Pani (Zebre Parma, 10 caps)

Not considered due to injury:
Tommaso Allan (Perpignan, 87 caps)
Juan Ignacio Brex (Toulon, 50 caps)
Gianmarco Lucchesi (Toulon, 33 caps)
Sebastian Negri (Benetton Rugby, 65 caps)
Marco Riccioni (Saracens, 36 caps)
Edoardo Todaro (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
Jacopo Trulla (Zebre Parma, 17 caps)
Stephen Varney (Exeter Chiefs, 36 caps)
Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs, 19 caps)

Related

ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

2 Comments
c
cal peek 45 days ago

Some very good players on that injury list.. I know Todaro is out long term, will any of the others be back before 6n end?

N
NK 45 days ago

Lucchesi not considered due to injury, but meanwhile he’s playing for RCT.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 5 hours ago
New report details source of Ardie Savea's All Blacks frustrations

Yeah it’s hard to be critical of Razor but of choices in his first year of the loosies he constantly played Ardie at 8. It would seem that was always the plan and that Hoskins was surplas to requirements (7, with Dalton then Cane, as was fairly happy with but understand the calls to drop Cane for his last test, along with TJ, and 6 was shared around nicely I thought) and he didn’t have the alround game of Ardie to simply overtake him at 8 (and use Ardie elsewhere). Of course he did that exact thing next year, too late for HS. Then last year 7 was fine if though the same problem was brought about by using Ardie (always leaves a component of a back three missing) there so often stopping Dalton from getting opportunities. At 6 Parker just had one or two too many games for me but 8 was shuffled around nicely, even if I don’t know why Lakai was thought to be the key there.

Of course a lot of rotation was brought about by, you guesed it, injury, still. Now to be fair to Razor, in reality we have no idea if he had to manage Ardie this way, based on NZRs desires with his contract (we have seen them move heaven and earth to retain him), and if he benched him often whether that would have caused him to leave or not. Or even that Hoskins would have accepted a jersey unless it was with a single digit on it, and a regular pick, as he had had to work his way back to the team without a big bump in his contract (of loosing AB selection early on) of other people his standing, so he also might have still put his family and therefor more over the jersey.



...

63 Go to comments
Close Panel
Close Panel

Edition & Time Zone

{{current.name}}
Set time zone automatically
{{selectedTimezoneTitle}} (auto)
Choose a different time zone
Close Panel

Editions

Close Panel

Change Time Zone

Close
ADVERTISEMENT