Mauro Bergamasco had a miserable 40 minutes at scrum-half

Italy have switched Mauro Bergamasco back to his usual open-side flanker role for Sunday's Six Nations match against Ireland in Rome.

Bergamasco was all at sea at scrum-half against England last Saturday and the recalled Paul Griffen replaces him in the number nine shirt.

Luke McLean starts at fly-half because Andrea Marcato has failed to recover from a neck injury.

And lock Marco Bortolami (knee) is replaced by Tommaso Reato.

The younger Bergamasco brother, Mirco, has been moved from the wing to his normal position at outside centre, with Matteo Pratichetti taking the number 11 jersey and Gonzalo Garcia dropping to the bench.

The halfback combination gives us the best chance of allowing us to get the three-quarters moving Italy coach Nick Mallett

Also among the replacements are scrum-half Giulio Toniolatti, who replaced Mauro Bergamasco at scrum-half at half-time against England, and Ulster second-row Carlo del Fava.

Italy coach Nick Mallett was heavily criticised for picking Mauro Bergamasco out of position at Twickenham, with three of England's five tries in a 36-11 win coming from the Stade Francais player's mistakes.

He overlooked 33-year-old New Zealand-born Griffen for the game against England despite having three scrum-halves - Simone Piccone, Pietro Travagli and Pablo Cannavosio - all unavailable.

"Mauro returns to the back row. I think we can expect a great performance from him," said Mallett.

"The halfback combination is the one that at the moment gives us the best chance of allowing us to get the three-quarters moving.

"Luke McLean is in for Andrea Marcato who is out because of injury, whilst Paul Griffen is the best choice we have in the current circumstances.

"Our opponents are coming off the back of an important win over France, something they've not done since 2003. I think that since Kidney took over last year they have improved considerably."

Italy: Masi; Robertson, Canale, Mi Bergamasco, Pratichetti; McLean, Griffen; Perugini, Ongaro, Castrogiovanni; Dellape, Reato; Zanni, Ma Bergamasco, Parisse.

Replacements: Festuccia, Nieto, del Fava, Sole, Toniolatti, Garcia, Bacchetti.

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