Italy call up another South African
South African-born Tobias Botes will make his first start for Italy against Ireland in the Six Nations in Dublin on Saturday – one of four changes to the Azzurri team.
He joins fellow South African Quintin Geldenhuys – who partners Marco Bortolami at lock – in the starting team, with another lock, SA-born Cornelius van Zyl, having been axed from the squad after the opening week of the tournament.
Botes, who plays scrumhalf for Treviso in the Celtic League, has made two substitute appearances at flyhalf so far.
After replacing Australian-born Kris Burton against England in Rome last time out he missed two penalties, thus spurning the chance for a potential first victory over the reigning Six Nations champions to whom Italy lost 15-19.
Burton’s tactical kicking from flyhalf during that game came in for a lot of criticism, however Italy coach Jacques Brunel denied that was the only reason for the change.
He also insisted he has no concerns about Botes’s place-kicking.
“It’s not just due to what happened against England, we have different possibilities with different players with different profiles,” said the French coach.
“In the case of Botes it’s part of the desire to enlarge our possibilities.
“He has to adapt to playing in this context at this level.
“We have to give him another chance because we didn’t see his real kicking ability.
“He took 40 kicks yesterday [Tuesday] and made 39 of them. If he wasn’t able to kick well in the Six Nations then he wouldn’t be very good in training either.”
Having been left out against England, Alberto Sgarbi returns at outside centre in place of Gonzalo Canale.
The other two changes are in the front row where Michele Rizzo will make his first Six Nations appearance in place of the injured Martin Castrogiovanni.
Lorenzo Cittadini, making his first start in the tournament, is preferred to veteran Andrea Lo Cicero, who doesn’t even make the bench with Fabio Staibano given that role instead.
Brunel explained that the changes are about seeing what younger, less experienced players can do at this level, while also keeping a solid base.
“We wanted to keep the spine of the team so we kept the back three (full-back and two wingers), we kept the hooker, the number eight and the scrumhalf, although we changed the fly-half.
“We’ve brought back Sgarbi, who didn’t have a great game in Paris, to give him the chance to show his best form.
“Rizzo is in because he’s one of the tighthead props we want to see.
“We wanted to see Alberto de Marchi but he’s injured so we used the opportunity to have a look at Rizzo instead.
“It’s the Treviso front row and they’re used to playing together so that will help them feel comfortable.
“We’ve always made about the same number of changes: three or four to keep the spine and fluency while at the same time being able to change some things.”
It’s all part of the grander picture, according to Brunel, who has one eye on the World Cup in 2015.
“We have several aims: to see the base of the team and the spine of the team with its strengths, to enlarge the base and to start to prepare for four years time [the World Cup].
“We must have a bit of all that.”
Assistant coach Carlo Orlandi is confident the Italians will cope without the veteran prop, Castrogiovanni, who has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament.
He said: “The loss of Castrogiovanni is a big blow, because he is an experienced player who wants to win and an important member of the group. But we are confident [Lorenzo] Cittadini will play well, he doesn’t carry the ball like Castro, but he’s a very good player who is very strong in the scrum.
“The forwards will have to offer better ball to our three-quarters, we need to start playing a bit more, working on the aspects of the game which didn’t work well against England. The Irish defence isn’t hugely aggressive but it doesn’t offer much space, playing through the phases will be key to finding the gaps to put them in trouble.”
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Tobias Botes, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice, 17 Fabio Staibano, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Kris Burton, 22 Gonzalo Canale.
Date: Saturday, February 25
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 13.30 (13.30 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
