{"id":423105,"date":"2026-02-13T06:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423105\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T06:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:05:11","slug":"italy-forced-into-one-crucial-change-for-ireland-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423105\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy forced into one crucial change for Ireland challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Italy<\/a> head coach Gonzalo Quesada<\/a> has unsurprisingly chosen to make no enforced changes to his starting team for their Guinness Six Nations<\/a> round two clash with Ireland<\/a> in Dublin on Saturday, with Lorenzo Pani<\/a> being the only new name in the starting XV.<\/p>\n

Having tactically and physically outclassed Scotland<\/a> at the Stadio Olimpico in round one, Quesada has been reluctant to make any changes, even at the expense of fit-again star Ange Capuozzo<\/a>, who missed the match against Scotland as he recovered from a broken finger. The Toulouse<\/a> star has failed to make the squad at all as Italy have stuck with a winning formula as they look for their first win on Irish soil.<\/p>\n

After outside centre Juan Ignacio Brex<\/a> was forced to withdraw this week for personal reasons, Pani has been promoted from the bench to the starting XV for the match at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

This change has caused a backline reshuffle for the Azzurri, with last week\u2019s full-back Leonardo Marin<\/a> shifting to inside centre to accommodate Pani. Brex\u2019s usual centre partner, Tommaso Menoncello<\/a>, will also slide to outside centre.<\/p>\n

Pani\u2019s promotion from the bench to the starting XV has opened the door for Paolo Odogwu<\/a> to join the replacements. The one other change on the bench will see 23-year-old flanker David Odiase<\/a> take fly-half Giacomo Da Re\u2019s place, as Quesada has shifted from a 5-3 split to a 6-2 split.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Italy <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Italy XV
15 Lorenzo Pani
14 Louis Lynagh
13 Tommaso Menoncello
12 Leonardo Marin
11 Monty Ioane
10 Paolo Garbisi
9 Alessandro Fusco
1 Danilo Fischetti
2 Giacomo Nicotera
3 Simone Ferrari
4 Niccol\u00f2 Cannone
5 Andrea Zambonin
6 Michele Lamaro<\/a> (c)
7 Manuel Zuliani
8 Lorenzo Cannone<\/p>\n

Replacements
16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo
17 Mirco Spagnolo
18 Muhamed Hasa
19 Federico Ruzza
20 Riccardo Favretto
21 David Odias
22 Alessandro Garbisi
23 Paolo Odogwu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada has unsurprisingly chosen to make no enforced changes to his starting team for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-423105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}