Giovanni Raineri has published his team to face England on Sunday at Northampton.
It is:
1 Gaia Maris 2 Vittoria Vecchini 3 Lucia Gai 4 Sara Tounesi 5 Giordana Duca 6 Francesca Sgorbini 7 Giada Franco 8 Elisa Giordano (captain) 9 Sara Barattin 10 Veronica Madia 11 Sofia Stefan 12 Beatrice Rigoni 13 Michela Sillari 14 Aura Muzzo 15 Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi
Bench
16 Emanuela Stecca 17 *Alice Cassaghi 18 Sara Seye 19 Valeria Fedrighi 20 Isabella Locatelli 21 Emma Stevanin 22 Jessica Busato 23 Beatrice Capomaggi
*uncapped
Raineri has made three changes to last week’s line-up. Most notably Sara Barattin returns yet again to the No 9 shirt, Sofia Stefan moving back to left wing. That makes 113 caps for the former captain! Sara Tounesi swaps places with Valeria Fedrighi.
Just one new face in the squad, Alice Cassaghi stands by to play at loose-head.
Once more there is plenty of experience across the field to show the relative newcomers the way; five players apart from Barattin have over 50 caps to their name.
The weather in Northampton should be cold but dry. That will allow the Italian line-out to perform better than last week, a vital step in ensuring equality of possession.
Handling needs to be on point too. So many promising moves have come to grief thanks to a faulty pass. A few England players will be in less familiar positions (Aldcroft, Dow, Kabeya, Tuima, for example), so tiny holes may open up in defence systems. At their best the Azzurre are capable off dazzling off-loads and multiple attacks. But these skills will be put to a severe test here.
Final thoughts on England
Amidst all the upheavals in the Red Rose camp caused by injury, the Fifteen chosen retains important units – the front row, the halves and the back three.
As with Italy, only the one new face in the line-up, Delaney Burns, so with any luck the machine should quickly start whirring again.
England’s strength in depth is really being tested, but it’s an ideal chance for the selectors (new ones on the way!) to look at the range of possibilities.
Just one example: not so long ago the No 9 triumvirate read: Infante, Hunt, Macdonald (choose your own pecking order). Now Claudia Macdonald is the No 1 left-wing, and Lucy Packer and Ella Wyrwas are installed in their places.
Let battle commence.
