Italy host France in the RBS Six Nations Championship at the Stadio Flaminio on Saturday, 12 March 2011 with Kick-off: 1430 GMT, and live coverage on BBC One.
Italy are looking for their first win against France in the Six Nations and will certainly need to build on the spirited display against the Welsh a fortnight ago.
Nick Mallett’s men bossed the second half against Wales, spending over 34 minutes in Welsh territory but failed to convert that dominance to points. An unconverted try from captain Sergio Parisse was scant return for the Azzurri, who went down to their ninth loss in 10 Tests.
France’s loss at Twickenham now means thay are unable to take the grand slam but they are still in with a shout for the championship, although they will need to score a mountain of points in their last two games to overhaul the Engalnd points difference.
Teams
Italy: 15-Andrea Masi; 14-Tommaso Benvenuti, 13-Gonzalo Canale, 12-Gonzalo Garcia, 11- Mirco Bergamasco; 10-Luciano Orquera, 9-Fabio Semenzato; 1-Andrea Lo Cicero, 2-Carlo Festuccia, 3-Martin Castrogiovanni, 4-Santiao Dellape, 5-Carlo Del Fava, 6-Alessandro Zanni, 7-Robert Barbieri, 8-Sergio Parisse (captain).
Replacements: 16-Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17-Salvatore Perugini, 18-Quintin Geldenhuys, 19-Paul Derbyshire, 20-Pablo Canavosio, 21-Kris Burton, 22-Luke McLean.
France: 15-Maxime Medard, 14-Yoann Huget, 13-Aurelien Rougerie, 12-Yannick Jauzion, 11-Vincent Clerc, 10-Francois Trinh-Duc, 9-Morgan Parra; 1-Sylvain Marconnet, 2-William Servat, 3-Nicolas Mas, 4-Julien Pierre, 5-Lionel Nallet, 6-Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 7-Julien Bonnaire, 8-Sebastien Chabal.
Replacements: 16-Guilhem Guirado, 17-Luc Ducalcon, 18-Jerome Thion, 19-Imanol Harinordoquy, 20-Julien Tomas, 21-Damien Traille, 22-Clement Poitrenaud.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (NZL)
Touch judges: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRL) & Stuart Terheege (ENG)
TV: Jim Yuille (SCO)