LONDON – Italian has named their 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup starting in just under a month.
Captaining the side is of course, veteran Sergio Parisse who missed Italy’s World Cup warm-up loss to Scotland on Saturday. The 31 year old will play in his fourth World Cup while this will be the second World Cup that he’s captain his national team at.
While Italy boasts experience across the board with the likes of Mauro Bergamasco competing in his fifth World Cup as well as Castrogiovanni and Parisse competing at their fourth, Jacques Brunel has selected a relatively inexperienced Italian side with 16 players playing in their first World Cup.
The notable absentees are Marco Bortolami, Robert Barbieri and Michele Visentin who were excluded from the squad despite playing in the warm-up in Turin on the weekend.
The squad is made up of 17 forward and 14 backs.
Italy 31-man Rugby World Cup squad
Forwards: Matias Aguero, Martin Castrogiovanni, Dario Chistolini, Lorenzo Cittadini, Michele Rizzo, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Davide Giazzon, Andrea Manici, Valerio Bernabo, Joshua Furno, Marco Fuser, Quintin Geldenhuys, Mauro Bergamasco, Francesco Minto, Sergio Parisse, Samuela Vunisa, Alessandro Zanni
Backs: Edoardo Gori, Guglielmo Palazzani, Marcello Violi, Tommaso Allan, Carlo Canna, Tommaso Benvenuti, Michele Campagnaro, Angelo Esposito, Gonzalo Garcia, Andrea Masi, Luke McLean, Luca Morisi, Leonardo Sarto, Giovanbattista Venditti