ITALY LEGEND MAURO Bergamasco is in position to equal the record of most World Cups played at after being named among the replacements for Saturday’s Pool D meeting with Canada on Saturday in Elland Road (KO 14.30).

If he comes off the bench, it will be Bergamasco’s fifth time playing at a Rugby World Cup, equalling the feat set by Samoa’s Brian Lima who played through 1991 to the 2007 tournament.

Source: EMPICS Sport

Bergamasco is the only player at the 2015 World Cup to play in 1999 and, assuming he is introduced at some point against Canada, he will bring his caps total to 105.

Elsewhere in the Azzurri 23, Jacques Brunel has again had to leave star number eight Sergio Parisse out of the side. There are four changes in total to the line-up that fell to France with Michele Rizzo and Lorenzo Cittadini named as a fresh set of props.

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

There's a new combination in midfield too owing to the tournament-ending injury suffered by Andrew Masi. Gonzalo Garci steps in at inside centre with Tommaso Benvenuti outside.

Meanwhile, Kieran Crowley has been able to recall captain Tyler Ardron to the back row missed the 50 - 7 loss to Ireland through injury.

The Osprey is one of six fresh faces brought in to the starting line-up including brother Jamie and Phil MacKenzie who start at scrum-half and the wing respectively.

Italy

15 Luke McLean

14 Leonardo Sarto

13 Tommaso Benvenuti

12 Gonzalo Garcia

11 Giovanbattista Venditti

10 Tommaso Allan

9 Edoardo Gori

1 Michele Rizzo

2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain)

3 Lorenzo Cittadini

4 Quintin Geldenhuys

5 Josh Furno

6 Alessandro Zanni

7 Francesco Minto

8 Samuela Vunisa

Replacements

16 Davide Giazzon

17 Matias Aguero

18 Martin Castrogiovanni

19 Marco Fuser

20 Mauro Bergamasco

21 Guglielmo Palazzani

22 Carlo Canna

23 Michele Campagnaro

Canada

15 Matt Evans

14 Phil Mackenzie

13 Ciaran Hearn

12 Connor Braid

11 DTH Van Der Merwe

10 Nathan Hirayama

9 Jamie Mackenzie

1 Hubert Buydens

2 Ray Barkwill

3 Doug Wooldridge

4 Jebb Sinclair

5 Jamie Cudmore

6 Nanyak Dala

7 John Moonlight

8 Tyler Ardron (captain)

Replacements

16 Aaron Carpenter

17 Djustice Sears-Duru

18 Andrew Tiedemann

19 Evan Olmstead

20 Kyle Gilmour

21 Phil Mack

22 Conor Trainor

23 Harry Jones