Italy make five changes for game against France

Italy head coach Kieran Crowley has made five changes to the starting line up for the upcoming Rugby World Cup game against France to be played at OL Stadium on Friday.

Tommaso Allan moves back to fly-half after playing at fullback during the game against New Zealand with Paolo Garbisi moving to inside centre while Juan Ignacio Brex retains his place at outside centre.

Pierre Bruno has been named at right wing replacing Ange Capuozzo, who moves to fullback. While there are no changes to the back row, Niccolo Cannone comes to the second row replacing Dino Lamb-Cona.

The front row sees Hame Faiva as the preferred hooker while Pietro Ceccarelli comes at tighthead prop with Simone Ferrari donning the number 1 jersey.

Marco Manfredi, Federico Zani, Marco Riccioni, David Sisi and Manuel Zuliani are part of the bench as Italy look to remain in contention for the quarter-finals. They now have 10 points from three games with New Zealand and France above them with 10 and 13 points respectively.

Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Hame Faiva, 1 Simone Ferrari

Reserves: 16 Marco Manfredi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 David Sisi, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Luca Morisi, 23 Lorenzo Pani