Thursday 23 November 2017 15:22, UK
Giovanni Licata will make his first start in one of two Italy changes for Saturday's Test against South Africa.
Licata, who has won two caps off the bench, replaces Francesco Minto at blindside flanker while the other change sees Angelo Esposito replace Leonardo Sarto on the wing.
Tiziano Pasquale, Renato Giammarioli and Edoardo Gori are named among the replacements.
"The last selection [of the year] is always the hardest for a coach," said Italy head coach Conor O'Shea.
"We wanted to stick with the squad that has played in this trio of matches while at the same time adding a bit of freshness in Angelo and Giovanni from the first minute."
Italy come into this match having lost nine out of 10 internationals this year, with their only victory coming at home to Fiji two weeks ago.
Under O'Shea they have won only four of 21 Tests, although one of them came against the Springboks last November.
Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Marcello Violi; 1 Andrea Lovotti, 2 Luca Bigi, 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Marco Fuser, 5 Dean Budd, 6 Giovanni Licata, 7 Abraham Steyn, 8 Sergio Parisse (c).
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Francesco Minto, 20 Renato Giammarioli, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 Matteo Minozzi.
