Coach Conor O’Shea has made three changes to Italy’s starting lineup for Friday’s World Cup warm-up against France in Paris.

Props Simone Ferrari and Marco Riccioni return to the front row, while experienced lock Alessandro Zanni slots into the second row.

After a winless Six Nations campaign and defeat in their opening World Cup warm-up by Ireland, the Italy secured a much-needed 85-15 victory over Russia.

‘We want to continue from where we left off. The victory against Russia gave us some good points but it is in the past now. Our next objective is France,’ O’Shea said.

‘It will be a tough match and very interesting for a number of reasons. We want to show our true worth and try to take home a positive result, which will get us closer to peak form with regard to the Rugby World Cup.’

Italy – 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Matteo Minozzi, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Abraham Steyn, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Simone Ferrari.
Subs: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Dean Budd, 20 Sebastian Negri, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Tommaso Benvenuti.

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