Del Fava, who replaces the injured Santiago Dellape in the second row, is the first alteration Berbizier has made to his starting line-up in the competition, having named unchanged teams for the matches against Ireland and England.

Valerio Bernabo had been a possibility to replace Dellape after being called up from the Italy A side, but he has had to settle for a place on the bench.

Also coming into the squad on the replacements bench are utility back Ezio Galon and number eight Alessandro Zanni with flanker Silvio Orlando and fly-half Rima Wakarua the players to make way.

Italy team: C Stoica (Montpellier); P Canavosio (Calvisano), G Canale (Clermont-Auvergne), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais), L Nitoglia (Calvisano); R Pez (Perpignan), P Griffen (Calvisano); S Perugini (Calvisano), F Ongaro (Treviso), C Nieto (Viadana), C Del Fava (Bourgoin), M Bortolami (Narbonne, captain), J Sole (Viadana), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais), S Parisse (Stade Francais).

Replacements: C Festuccia (Parma), A Lo Cicero (L'Aquila), M Castrogiovanni (Calvisano), V Bernabo (Calvisano), A Zanni (Calvisano), S Picone (Treviso), E Galon (Parma).