Italy rocked ahead of Six Nations clash with England as star player ...

Italy have been dealt a significant blow ahead of their Six Nations match against England at the Stadio Olimpico after star wing Ange Capuozzo was ruled out.

Capuozzo is sidelined due to sickness and has been withdrawn from the Azzurri’s starting side in a setback to the hosts’ cause as they look to claim a shock victory.

Lorenzo Pani has been promoted from the replacements bench to fill the void in the number 14 jersey, with Federico Mori drafted into the matchday 23 in Rome.

Two pulled out

Adding a further headache to Gonzalo Quesada ahead of his first fixture in charge of Italy is news that back-row Edoardo Iachizzi is out with a shoulder injury.

Alessandro Izekor has subsequently been called onto the bench in jersey 20 as the Italians look to seal what would be a first win over England in 31 attempts.

“Ange is a really important player for us and we know how good he is in attack. He’s had a really good start to the season,” admitted captain Michele Lamaro.

The Azzurri have identified two key targets for the upcoming Six Nations – stop conceding tries and stay in contention in matches until the closing stages.

Heavy defeats in the World Cup to New Zealand and France have stunted Italy’s recent progress and Lamaro wants his troops to develop a greater resilience.

“We want to play our way. We want to continue playing how we were before with our attack, also but also improve our defence because we don’t want to keep conceding tries,” he said.

Be competitive

“We want to be competitive against every team in the competition and still be in with a chance to win in the last 10 minutes – that will be a big focus for us.

“It will be a big challenge against England because they came third at the World Cup so they are the highest placed team in Europe at the moment.

“We want to go out there and show what we can do. We want to see 23 players fighting for one big goal and what we want to achieve.”

Italy (revised): 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Lorenzo Pani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Danilo FischettiReplacements: 16 Giacomo Nicotera, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Alessandro Izekor, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Federico Mori

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