Christopher Burton and Enrico Patrizio have both been handed the chance to stake a claim for a place in the World Cup squad for the tournament in France later this year.

Italy face Uruguay in Montevideo on June 2 and Argentina a week later in Mendoza.

Berbizier said: We have just a little more than three months to prepare for the World Cup in France.

'And this tour is the ideal occasion to take a look at players who weren't included in the last RBS 6 Nations due to injury problems.

I'm talking about players such as David Bortolussi, Marko Stanojevic, Pablo Canavosio, Alessandro Stoica.

'Also, the Tests against Uruguay and Argentina will allow us to monitor two young interesting players in Christopher Burton and Enrico Patrizio.

From July we will concentrate fully on our preparation for the World Cup.

Italy squad - Forwards - M Aguero, R Barbieri, V Bernabo, C Del Fava, C Festuccia, A Lo Cicero, R Mandelli, C Nieto, F Ongaro, S Orlando, K Robertson, J Sole, A Zanni.
Backs - D Bortolussi, C Burton, P Canavosio, R De Marigby, P Griffen, E Patrizio, R Pez, M Pratichetti, F Staibano, M Stanojevic, A Stoica,