RBS SIX NATIONS - ITALY v ENGLAND Venue: Stadio Flaminio, Rome Date: Sunday, 14 February Kick-off: 1430 GMT Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC HD channel, Red Button and online; Commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text commentary and score updates on BBC Sport website and mobile phones
 Bortolami will win his 78th cap in Sunday's encounter |
Italy have named lock Marco Bortolami and Andrea Masi in their side to face England in the Six Nations on Sunday. Italy coach Nick Mallett recalled former skipper Bortolami after Carlo Antonio Del Fava was ruled out for at least four weeks with a knee injury. The versatile Masi replaces Kaine Robertson on the right wing as Mallett looks to counter the physical threat of England's Ugo Monye. Scrum-half Pablo Canavosio is on the bench in place of Simon Picone. Gloucester lock Bortolami won his 77th cap when he came on for Del Fava for the final half-hour of their 29-11 defeat by Ireland last Saturday. Picone, who came on as a replacement in Dublin, pulled out of the squad earlier in the week because of a muscle strain. Italy are already without their regular captain Sergio Parisse for the entire competition after the number eight ruptured knee ligaments in November. Leonardo Ghiraldini, his replacement as skipper, says the team are keeping their targets realistic. "We want to be competitive in any game and win at least one match in this year's tournament," he said. "It will be very important for us to focus on our strengths, to keep improving as a team and not challenge our opponents on their strengths. "We need to keep doing the good things that we did against Ireland, like our defence in the second half, and try to learn from the mistakes we made in that game in order to avoid making them in the future."
Italy: Italy: Luke McLean; Andrea Masi, Gonzalo Canale, Gonzalo Garcia, Mirco Bergamasco; Craig Gower, Tito Tebaldi; Salvatore Perugini, Leonardo Ghiraldini (capt), Martin Castrogiovanni, Quintin Geldenhuys, Marco Bortolami, Josh Sole, Mauro Bergamasco, Alessandro Zanni. Replacements: Fabio Ongaro, Matias Aguero, Valerio Bernabo, Paul Derbyshire, Pablo Canavosio, Riccardo Bocchino, Kaine Robertson.
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