(Reuters) -Louis Lynagh kept his place as Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada went with a mostly tried and trusted team for Saturday’s test against Argentina in Udine when he named his side on Thursday.
Wing Lynagh, 23, made his debut in this year’s Six Nations, starting in Italy’s wins over Scotland and Wales before playing two further matches in the Summer Tour, including Italy’s last game, a victory over Japan.
Quesada gives Mirco Spagnolo his first start, with the prop having made eight appearances from the bench, but otherwise he has gone for experience, with fullback Ange Capuozzo, flanker Sebastian Negri and flyhalf Paolo Garbisi all in the side.
The coach stuck with the centre pairing of Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello who impressed in the Six Nations, two of nine Benetton players in the starting side, which is captained by their club teammate, flanker Michele Lamaro.
“It would have been very dangerous to change too much in four training sessions,” Quesada said.
“We have added two or three new things because we want to implement them in view of the next games and the Six Nations, but we did not want to take the risk of making too many changes because we want to give continuity to the technical project carried out so far.”
Tommaso Allan is among the replacements after the flyhalf returned to the squad following a break from international rugby earlier this year, and Dino Lamb is also on the bench, in the lock’s first call-up by Quesada after returning from injury.
Team:
15 Ange Capuozzo
14 Louis Lynagh
13 Juan Ignacio Brex
12 Tommaso Menoncello
11 Monty Ioane
10 Paolo Garbisi
9 Martin Page-Relo
8 Lorenzo Cannone
7 Michele Lamaro (captain)
6 Sebastian Negri
5 Federico Ruzza
4 Niccolo Cannone
3 Marco Riccioni
2 Gianmarco Lucchesi
1 Mirco Spagnolo
Replacements:
16 Giacomo Nicotera
17 Danilo Fischetti
18 Simone Ferrari
19 Dino Lamb
20 Manuel Zuliani
21 Alessandro Garbisi
22 Tommaso Allan
23 Marco Zanon
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis)
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