Italian pivot on course for World Cup record
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Italy’s flyhalf Tommaso Allan is on course to become his country’s all-time leading World Cup points scorer when his side faces Uruguay in Pool A at Stade de Nice on Wednesday.
Allan kicked all eight shots at goal against Namibia in their opening round, scoring 17 points, equalling his highest points total in a World Cup match after also scoring 17 against Romania in Exeter in 2015.
He requires 15 more points to surpass Diego Dominguez as Italy’s all-time leading World Cup points scorer.
In this, his ninth World Cup game, Allan will look to overtake Dominguez who scored 98 points in nine matches between 1991 and 1999.
Allan will form a half-back pairing with Alessandro Garbisi for only the third time, after last year against Georgia and this year against Romania.
Italy’s head coach Kieran Crowley made four changes to his starting XV from the team who defeated Namibia 52-8 in the opening round.
Marco Riccioni comes into the front-row, Niccolò Cannone into the second-row, Garbisi at scrum-half and Lorenzo Pani on the wing.
Paolo Garbisi will start at inside-centre for the first time in his test career. All 23 previous starts have come at fly-half, with two caps off the bench.
This match features two sets of brothers for the first time in Italy’s World Cup history with Lorenzo and Niccolò Lorenzo and Paolo and Alessandro Garbisi starting alongside each other.
Sebastian Negri will play his 50th test for Italy after making his debut in 2016 against USA.
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo;14 Lorenzo Pani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Alessandro Garbisi; 8 Lorenzo Cannone; 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri; 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone; 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Giovanni Pettinelli, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Paolo Odogwu
Date: Wednesday, September 20
Venue: Stade de Nice, Nice
Kick-off: 17.45 (15.45 GMT, 17.45 CEST, 12.45 UYT)
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Jordan Way (Australia)
TMO: Tom Foley (England)
Additional source AAP
