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Italy's Bergamasco in line to equal record by featuring in 5th Rugby World Cup

Italy are still without Sergio Parisse and they’ll meet a Canada side showing six changes from the loss to Ireland.

ITALY LEGEND MAURO Bergamasco is in position to equal the record of most World Cups played at after being named among the replacements for Saturday’s Pool D meeting with Canada on Saturday in Elland Road (KO 14.30).

If he comes off the bench, it will be Bergamasco’s fifth time playing at a Rugby World Cup, equalling the feat set by Samoa’s Brian Lima who played through 1991 to the 2007 tournament.

Rugby Union - Rugby World Cup 99 - Pool B - England v Italy EMPICS Sport EMPICS Sport

Bergamasco is the only player at the 2015 World Cup to play in 1999 and, assuming he is introduced at some point against Canada, he will bring his caps total to 105.

Elsewhere in the Azzurri 23, Jacques Brunel has again had to leave star number eight Sergio Parisse out of the side. There are four changes in total to the line-up that fell to France with Michele Rizzo and Lorenzo Cittadini named as a fresh set of props.

Mauro Bergamasco with referee Chris PollockSource: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

 

There's a new combination in midfield too owing to the tournament-ending injury suffered by Andrew Masi. Gonzalo Garci steps in at inside centre with Tommaso Benvenuti outside.

Meanwhile, Kieran Crowley has been able to recall captain Tyler Ardron to the back row missed the 50 - 7 loss to Ireland through injury.

The Osprey is one of six fresh faces brought in to the starting line-up including brother Jamie and Phil MacKenzie who start at scrum-half and the wing respectively.

Italy

15 Luke McLean
14 Leonardo Sarto
13 Tommaso Benvenuti
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 Giovanbattista Venditti
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Edoardo Gori

1 Michele Rizzo
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain)
3 Lorenzo Cittadini
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
5 Josh Furno
6 Alessandro Zanni
7 Francesco Minto
8 Samuela Vunisa

Replacements

16 Davide Giazzon
17 Matias Aguero
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Marco Fuser
20 Mauro Bergamasco
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Carlo Canna
23 Michele Campagnaro

Canada

15 Matt Evans
14 Phil Mackenzie
13 Ciaran Hearn
12 Connor Braid
11 DTH Van Der Merwe
10 Nathan Hirayama
9 Jamie Mackenzie

1 Hubert Buydens
2 Ray Barkwill
3 Doug Wooldridge
4 Jebb Sinclair
5 Jamie Cudmore
6 Nanyak Dala
7 John Moonlight
8 Tyler Ardron (captain)

Replacements

16 Aaron Carpenter
17 Djustice Sears-Duru
18 Andrew Tiedemann
19 Evan Olmstead
20 Kyle Gilmour
21 Phil Mack
22 Conor Trainor
23 Harry Jones

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