Italy's Australian-born wing to face Wallabies
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Monty Ioane will face his home country for the first time in his career after being selected for the Italy team taking on Australia in the Nations Series this weekend.
Wing Ioane scored two tries in the Azzurri’s 49-17 win over Samoa last weekend and retains his place in the side for the game at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Saturday.
The 28-year-old was born in Melbourne to Samoan and Fijian parents but never played for either of those two nations nor Australia, a country which his uncle Digby Ioane represented.
He qualified for Italy under World Rugby rules from before 2018 which allowed him to play for the Mediterranean nation after three years of residency.
Fullback Ange Capuozzo returns to the starting line-up as one of four changes to the Italy team from last weekend’s six-try victory in Padua.
France-born Capuozzo was the author of the stunning late try that beat Wales and ended Italy’s 36-match Six Nations losing streak in the competition.
Italy have won four of their last five Test matches.
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo; 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Monty Ioane; 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney; 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri; 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone; 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Giacomo Nicotera, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 David Sisi, 20 Toa Halafihi, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Tommaso Menoncello
Date: Saturday, November 12
Venue: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
Kick-off: 15.00 (13.00 GMT; 00.00 AEDT Sunday, November 13)
Referee: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland) & Adam Leal (Ireland)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
