Italy
Profiles of the 2015 Rugby World Cup teams.
The Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Italy have competed in all six Rugby World Cups, having made their first appearance at the 1987 tournament, but aree yet to progress past the pool stages.
While not stacked with big-name players, they are an experienced team that have the potential to cause upsets, as they showed against Scotland in the Six Nations.
The team is likely to defeat Romania and Canada in the group stages, they will need to surprise one of France or Ireland in order to make the next round.
Forwards
Matias Aguero (Zebre), Martin Castrogiovanni (Toulon/FRA), Dario Chistolini (Zebre), Lorenzo Cittadini (Wasps/ENG), Michele Rizzo (Leicester/ENG), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Leicester/ENG), Davide Giazzon (Treviso), Andrea Manici (Zebre), Valerio Barnabo (Zebre), Joshua Furno (Newcastle/ENG), Marco Fuser (Treviso), Quintin Geldenhuys (Zebre), Mauro Bergamasco (Zebre), Francesco Minto (Treviso), Sergio Parisse (Stade Français/FRA, capt), Samuela Vunisa (Zebre), Alessandro Zanni (Treviso)
Backs
Carlo Canna (Zebre), Edoardo Gori (Treviso), Guglielmo Palazzani (Zebre), Marcello Violi (Calvisano), Tommaso Allan (Perpignan/FRA), Tommaso Benvenuti (Bristol/ENG), Michele Campagnaro (Treviso), Simone Favaro (Glasgow Warriors/SCO), Gonzalo Garcia (Zebre), Andrea Masi (Wasps/ENG), Luke McLean (Sale/ENG), Luca Morisi
Coach
Jacques Brunel