Italy make five changes ahead of clash with Ireland

Italy head coach Conor O'Shea has made five changes to the starting line-up for the third round of the Six Nations encounter against Ireland to be played in Rome on Sunday.

Leonardo Ghiraldini will lead the side in the absence of regular captain Sergio Parisse, who misses out due to a concussion while Braam Steyn moves from open side to number eight allowing a comeback for Maxime Mbanda.

Jimmy Tuivaiti has been recalled at blindside flank where he replaces Sebastian Negri with Federico Ruzza taking the place of David Sisi at lock with the final change in the forwards coming with Andrea Lovotti taking the place of Nicola Quaglio.

The backline sees a solitary change with scrum-half Guglielmo Palazzani making way for Tito Tebaldi with the former named among the replacements.

Italy are currently languishing at the bottom of the Six Nations table after losing both their games and have lost 19 consecutive games in the Six Nations.

Italy starting line-up: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Angelo Esposito, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Braam Steyn, 7 Maxime Mbanda’, 6 Jimmy Tuivaiti, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Federico Ruzza, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (c), 1 Andrea Lovotti

Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Cherif Traore’, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 David Sisi, 20 Alessandro Zanni, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Ian Mckinley, 23 Tommaso Castello