Lamb in for lock Cannone

Italy head coach Kieran Crowley adds Dino Lam (pictured), Stephen Varney and Luca Morisi to his starting XV as he names his match-day 23 for the Pool A game against New Zealand at OL Stadium in Lyon on Friday, with the changes from the team that began against Uruguay being Niccolo Cannone moving to the bench and Alessandro Garbisi and Lorenzo Pani dropping out of the squad.

1 Danilo Fischetti
2 Giacomo Nicotera
3 Marco Riccioni
4 Dino Lamb
5 Federico Ruzza
6 Sebastian Negri
7 Michele Lamaro (c)
8 Lorenzo Cannone
9 Stephen Varney
10 Paolo Garbisi
11 Montanna Ioane
12 Luca Morisi
13 Juan Ignacio Brex
14 Ange Capuozzo
15 Tommaso Allan

Replacements:
16 Hame Faiva
17 Ivan Nemer
18 Simone Ferrari
19 Niccolo Cannone
20 Manuel Zuliani
21 Toa Halafihi
22 Martin Page-Relo
23 Paolo Odogwu

• Dino Lamb replaces Niccolo Cannone in the second-row in the only change to the forward pack. He has scored a try in two of his three career starts. 
• Stephen Varney replaces Alessandro Garbisi at scrum-half to partner Paolo Garbisi in the halves for the sixth time this year.
• Luca Morisi comes into the midfield after playing 47 minutes against Namibia. This will be his first test against the All Blacks since 2018, after playing 25 minutes off the bench against them in Rome. 
• Tommaso Allan returns to full-back after starting at fly-half last week, while Paolo Garbisi moves from the centres to fly-half. Allan has not missed a shot at goal at RWC 2023, kicking all 13 attempts, and requires five more points to surpass Diego Dominguez as Italy’s all-time leading Rugby World Cup point-scorer. 
• No player in the match-day team has ever scored a try against the All Blacks. The last Azzurri player to cross New Zealand’s try-line was Tommaso Boni in 2016.
• Paolo Garbisi leads the team at RWC 2023 for carries (31) and has made the joint-most defenders beaten (7) and try assists (2).