The highly rated lock was called up by coach Pierre Berbizier after impressing during performances for the Azzurri youth team.

Berbizier believes the youngster will learn a lot from the practice session, especially with the presence of a number of experienced fellow second-row forwards in the party.

After losing Robert Barbieri, we chose to call up an interesting young player in Tommaso Reato, who has been watched by my staff while playing in the youth team, said the French coach. He has made a huge impression on my staff.

In preparing for the World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Russia, we believe the four locks we have (Valerio Bernabo, Marco Bortolami, Santiago Dellape, Carlo Del Fava) are at present the best to choose from.

This is the reason why we have called a young player like Reato into a squad with four experienced second-row players.