Jake Polledri will make his Italy debut at the Stadio Olimpico as the Azzurri prepare to face Scotland in the Six Nations on Super Saturday.
The 22-year-old comes in at flanker to replace Maxime Mbanda in the only change to Conor O’Shea’s starting XV from the one that lost to Wales last weekend.
Polledri will join Sebastian Negri and captain Sergio Parisse in the back-row in Rome to face Scotland, who lost in Dublin last weekend.
In-form Zebre star Giulio Bisegni keeps his place in the starting XV, joining Tommaso Castello in midfield while the back three of Matteo Minozzi, Mattia Bellini and Tommaso Benvenuti remains unchanged.
Minozzi has enjoyed a breakthrough tournament and dotted down his third try of the Championship in Cardiff last time out.
In the tight five, Alessandro Zanni and Dean Budd form the second-row while Leonardo Ghiraldini is at hooker with Andrea Lovotti and Simone Ferrari either side of him.
Italy: 15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Giulio Bisegni, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Oliviero Fabiani, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Tiziani Pasquali, 19 Abraham Steyn, 20 Giovanni Licata, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Jayden Hayward
Date: Saturday, March 17
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Kick-off: 13:30 local (12:30 GMT)
Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
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