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Ghiraldini to captain Italy v France

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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