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Italy coach Pierre Berbizier will start Salvatore Perugini at prop instead of Andrea Lo Cicero for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations Championship opener against France.
Lo Cicero had impressed in the autumn Tests while Toulouse star Perugini served a five-week ban for a headbutting incident in a Heineken Cup game against Ulster last October.
But Berbizier has preferred the experience of the 28-year-old who shone in the pack for the Azzurri in last year's Six Nations campaign.
Berbizier has also named Ramiro Pez as a replacement, and opted to pair 33-year-old Andrea Scanavacca at half-back with Paul Griffen.
Former captain Alessandro Troncon had a surprise recall to the party after two years not playing for the national team and has been named as a replacement.
Italy team to face France on Saturday in Rome:
R De Marigny (Calvisano); D Dallan (Stade Francais), G Canale (Clermont-Auvergne), M Bergamasco (Stade Francais), A Masi (Biarritz); A Scanavacca (Calvisano), P Griffen (Calvisano); S Perugini (Toulouse), F Ongaro (Saracens), C Nieto (Gloucester), S Dellape (Biarritz), M Bortolami (captain, Gloucester), J Sole (Viadana), M Bergamasco (Stade Francais), S Parisse (Stade Francais).
Replacements: C Festuccia (GRAN Parma), A Lo Cicero (L'Aquila), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester Tigers), K Robertson (Viadana); R Pez (Bayonne), A Troncon (Clermont-Auvergne), R Mandelli (GRAN Parma).
