South African-born Tobias Botes will make his first start for Italy against Ireland in the Six Nations in Dublin on Saturday - one of four changes to the Azzurri team.
He joins fellow South African Quintin Geldenhuys - who partners Marco Bortolami at lock - in the starting team, with another lock, SA-born Cornelius van Zyl, having been axed from the squad after the opening week of the tournament.
Another change sees Alberto Sgarbi - who was left out against England - coming back in at centre in place of Gonzalo Canale.
The other two changes are in the front row - where Michele Rizzo will make his first Six Nations appearance in place of the injured Martin Castrogiovanni.
Lorenzo Cittadini, making his first start in the tournament, is preferred to veteran Andrea Lo Cicero, who doesn't even make the bench with Fabio Staibano given that role instead.
Assistant coach Carlo Orlandi is confident the Italians will cope without the veteran prop, Castrogiovanni, who has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament.
He said: "The loss of Castrogiovanni is a big blow, because he is an experienced player who wants to win and an important member of the group. But we are confident [Lorenzo] Cittadini will play well, he doesn't carry the ball like Castro, but he's a very good player who is very strong in the scrum.
"The forwards will have to offer better ball to our three-quarters, we need to start playing a bit more, working on the aspects of the game which didn't work well against England. The Irish defence isn't hugely aggressive but it doesn't offer much space, playing through the phases will be key to finding the gaps to put them in trouble.”
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Tobias Botes, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Fabio Staibano, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Kris Burton, 22 Gonzalo Canale.
Date: Saturday, February 25
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 13.30 (13.30 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
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