Leonardo Ghiraldini will captain Italy in their opening game of the Rugby World Cup against France at Twickenham on Saturday.Leicester Tigers hooker Ghiraldini, who has been capped 78 times, will lead out his country for the 10th occasion after Sergio Parisse was ruled out of the game through injury.
His Tigers teammate Michele Rizzo, who celebrated his 33rd birthday this week, is named among the replacements for the Pool D clash.
Ghiraldini is joined by Matias Aguero (36 caps) and former Tigers prop Martin Castrogiovanni (113 caps) in the most-capped starting front row in Rugby World Cup history. Their combined total of 227 Test appearances is 12 more than the previous best of 215 held by South Africa’s Gurthro Steenkamp, John Smit and CJ van der Linde against Namibia in 2011.
Italy (v France, Twickenham Stadium, 8pm UK time, Saturday, September 19)
15 Luke McLean9
14 Leonardo Sarto.
13 Michele Campagnaro
12 Andrea Masi
11 Giovanbattista Venditti
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Edoardo Gori
1 Matias Aguero
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain)
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
5 Josh Furno
6 Alessandro Zanni
7 Francesco Minto
8 Samuela Vunisa
Replacements:
16 Andrea Manici
17 Michele Rizzo
18 Lorenzo Cittadini
19 Valerio Bernabo
20 Simone Favaro
21 Guglielmo Palazzani
22 Carlo Canna
23 Enrico Bacchin
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Ghiraldini to captain Italy v France
17 September 2015 3:17 PM
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