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Italy name team to play Namibia

Italy head coach Kieran Crowley has named his match-day 23 to face Namibia in Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Étienne on Saturday, with Tommaso Allan, who played fly-half in the previous two Rugby World Cups, named at full-back.

1 Danilo Fischetti
2 Giacomo Nicotera
3 Simone Ferrari
4 Dino Lamb
5 Federico Ruzza
6 Sebastian Negri
7 Michele Lamaro (c)
8 Lorenzo Cannone
9 Stephen Varney
10 Paolo Garbisi
11 Montanna Ioane
12 Luca Morisi
13 Juan Ignacio Brex
14 Ange Capuozzo
15 Tommaso Allan

Replacements:

16 Hame Faiva
17 Ivan Nemer
18 Marco Riccioni
19 David Sisi
20 Manuel Zuliani
21 Martin Page-Relo
22 Paolo Odogwu
23 Pierre Bruno

Head Coach Kieran Crowley has named five survivors in his match-day team from the last time they played Namibia at RWC 2019, in Tommaso Allan, Federico Ruzza, Luca Morisi, Simone Ferrari and Marco Riccioni.

Only six players in his match-day squad have Rugby World Cup experience from previous tournaments.

Three players in the 23 play their club rugby in France: Tommaso Allan for Perpignan, Ange Capuzzo for Stade Toulousain and Paolo Garbisi for Montpellier.

Allan will play his eighth Rugby World Cup match, the most of any player in this squad. Italy have won all three games when he scores more than 10 points in a RWC game, but lost all four when he has been restricted nine points or fewer.

Federico Ruzza missed just one tackle during the 2023 Six Nations, completing all 60 of 61 attempts. He was also a threat at lineout time, making a team-high two steals and 38 wins. He has played the most minutes of any Azzurri player this season with 642.

Ange Capuozzo has made the most linebreaks (12) and beaten the most defenders (30) for Italy this season, breaking the defensive line on average every 4.8 carries. He was named World Rugby Men’s Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2022.

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