Italy v Chile - Teams and Prediction
PREVIEW: Italy and Chile will face off for the first time in history when these sides meet at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa for the final round of the Nations Series.
The Chileans will become the third South American team the Azzurri will face in their history, after having previously battled against Argentina and Uruguay a combined 29 times.
For the visitors, it will be a daunting task against an Italian team that in recent years proved to be a tough nut to crack, having beaten Wales, South Africa, Scotland and Australia over the past decade.
Chile replaced Samoa in this Nations Series, as Samoa has recently played the World Cup qualifier tournament, which they’ve won to cement their place in the 2027 global showpiece in Australia.
Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada, however, isn’t taking the South Americans, who are eight places below them (18th) in the World Rugby rankings, lightly.
“They have a solid scrum and backs with plenty of legs. They play a free-flowing style of rugby,” Gonzalo Quesada began in the press conference after announcing the lineup.
“Lots of movement and little footwork. The first twenty to thirty minutes will be very tough: I know the South American mentality well.
Quesada made 10 changes to the team that went down to the world champion Springboks last weekend and warned that too many tweaks to his team could have big ramifications.
“It was difficult to make more changes. First of all, because we have a lot of respect for Chile.
“We know it will be a tough match. It will be a game we need to build step by step, taking things in order.
“Making big changes would have been risky. Some players haven’t played for three weeks—the weekend in Verona, the one against Australia, and the one against South Africa—and fielding them all together could have caused us difficulties in the final stages.
“That’s why we found a balance between those who start and finish the game.”
Players to watch:
For Italy: Ange Capuozzo will be a lethal threat from the back, given time and space with the ball alongside winger Monty Ioane. No.8 Lorenzo Cannone’s leadership and ability to break tackles will be key to getting his team front-foot ball and providing clean, quick ball to his dangerous backline.
For Chile: Their front row of Javier Carrasco, Augusto Böhme and Iñaki Gurruchaga will have their work cut out for them and need to neutralise Italy’s front three, who were impressive at times against South Africa last week. Clemente Saavedra’s leadership and breakdown work will be crucial in tandem with the rest of the pack to feed their backs good, clean ball to attack with.
Prediction
@Rugby365: Italy by 25 points
Teams:
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Mirko Belloni, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Alessandro Izekor, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Muhamed Hasa
Replacements: 16 Pablo Dimicheff, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Martin Page-Relo, 22 Juan Ignacio-Brex, 23 Edoardo Todaro.
Chile: 15 Matías Garafulic, 14 Clemente Armstrong, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 12 Santiago Videla, 11 Nicolás Saab, 10 Juan Cruz Reyes, 9 Lucas Berti, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 7 Clemente Saavedra (captain), 6 Ernesto Tchimino, 5 Javier Eissmann, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 2 Augusto Böhme, 1 Javier Carrasco
Replacements: 16 Raimundo Martínez, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Bruno Sáez, 20 Augusto Villanueva, 21 Sebastián Bianchi, 22 Tomás Salas, 23 Joaquín Milesi
Date: Saturday, November 22
Venue: Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa
Kick-off: 21.10 (17.10 CLST; 20.10 GMT)
Expected weather: A high of six degrees Celsius at kick-off. Clear skies with a gentle breeze from the north east and humidity of 56 percent.
Referee: Adam Leal (England)
Assistant referees: Adam Jones (Wales), Ben Connor (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
