Troncon - Italys most-capped player - has not played for the Azzurri since March 2005.

Berbizier has stood by Andrea Scanavacca at fly-half after he proved his fitness following a rib injury in the early stages of last weekends 39-3 home defeat to France.

Scanavacca was replaced by Ramiro Pez in Rome, but the Bayonne man will have to be content with a place on the bench.

Berbizier said: Some choices are down to the injuries we have been forced to deal with while working this week, like those to Mauro Bergamasco and Andrea Masi.

'In any case this line-up will help us see how some players do at a high level and will help us work on the squad ahead of the World Cup, and to give a better mental and athletic freshness to the team after the first Six Nations game.

The decision to play Troncon at number nine from the first minute also comes from that evaluation, and it will be interesting to see how Alessandro does as a starter after two years since his last starting appearance for the Azzurri.

'It's important to understand all games are difficult, but we have shown we can play and we must now show how to manage a game and improve our finishing ability.

'Against France in the first half we could have scored 22 points and we only got three and we created those chances before our opponents did.

We could have stamped ourselves on the match from the first minute but we did not, and our opponents created chances worth 29 points in the first half and managed to get 22 points from those chances.

This is something crucial.'