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Preview: Italy v Canada

Italy suffered a 10-32 defeat at the hands of France in their opening match while Canada were handed a 7-50 thrashing at the hands of Six Nations champions Ireland.

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Italian coach Jacques Brunel analysed the choices and changes made to the starting XV that will face the North Americans.

Preview: Italy v Canada"We have the possibility to choose between five pillars of value similar to each other. After the game against France we wanted to deploy Michele Rizzo and Lorenzo Cittadini to give a signal to the referees, who sanctioned Martin Castrogiovanni and Matias Aguero.

"Against France, we conceded 19 kicking chances and even though we disagree on many, it is still too many. Against the Canadians discipline of the pack will be crucial, they really like to play with the forwards and we can not underestimate them.

"Tommaso Benvenuti and Gonzalo Garcia have improved a lot over the last week and it will be interesting to see how they will behave," Brunel said about the new centre pairing.

"When we played them in Toronto in 2012, it was a difficult game but we managed to bag the win. After seeing Canada against Ireland, I do not expect anything different from them, they played a very good match," he added.

 

Preview: Italy v CanadaCanadian head coach Kieran Crowley has selected his strongest available side and will be in with a big chance as they are ranked just three places behind their opponents.

 

"Starting this weekend we have three games in 11 days, so there's a short turnaround and we've had to manage a few players around selections and injuries, but this team is the strongest available to get the job done on Saturday," Crowley said.

 

Canada has included No.8 and regular captain Tyler Ardron, who returns to full fitness while there were five other changes from the starting XV that lost to Ireland last Saturday.

 

"I'm excited to make my return to the squad, especially since it's my World Cup debut as well. I thought the team played with a lot of passion against Ireland and I'm keen to do my part on Saturday.

 

"Italy are a fully professional side and are known for having a strong, physical forward pack so we're going to have to match them up front," Ardron said.

 

Canada is 2-5 all-time against Italy with their last meeting coming in June 2012 where Italy won 25-16 in Toronto. Canada hasn't beaten Italy since November 2000 and has lost its last four meetings. The two sides have met just once at a previous World Cup in 2003 in Canberra, where Italy won 19-14.

Players to watch:

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Preview: Italy v CanadaFor Italy: The halfback pairing of Edoardo Gori and Tommaso Allan should be the players to spark Italy into life and release their dangerous backline but they will need front foot ball supplied by their big pack of forwards. The new centre combination of Gonzalo Garcia and Tommaso Benvenuti will need to reward Brunel's trust in them.

Preview: Italy v CanadaFor Canada: DTH van der Merwe grabbed Canada's first try of the tournament and, should he see enough of the ball, his pace and skill will be pleasing on the eyes. Nathan Hirayama will be key in keeping the North Americans in the game with his trusty boot while the front row of Doug Wooldridge, Ray Barkwill and Hubert Buydens needs to be at their best at scrum time. However, all eyes will be on returning captain Tyler Ardron to see if his leadership will have any impact on inspiring Canada to a famous victory.

Head to head: Both sides are proud of their physicality up front and the contest at scrum time will certainly be interesting to watch. All eyes will be on the contest at the back of the scrum as well with the return of regular Canadian captain Tyler Ardron to see how he goes up against Serio Parisse's replacement Samuela Vunisa. Italy has a new centre pairing and their combination will be tested when they face up to Ciaran Hearn and Connor Braid in Canada's midfield.

Preview: Italy v CanadaPrevious results:

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2012: Italy won 25-16, Toronto

2006: Italy won 41-6, Fontanafredda

2004: Italy won 51-6, L'Aquila

2003: Italy won 19-14, Canberra (WC pool match)

2000: Canada won 17-22, Rovigo

Prediction: It is going to be a highly physical encounter and the Canadians should run Italy close but the Azzurri will have too much determination and hunger to get their campaign on track, so we expect an Italian victory by 12 points.

Teams:

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Samuela Vunisa, 7 Francesco Minto, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Josh Furno, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain), 1 Michele Rizzo.  

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, 8 Tyler Ardron (captain), 7 John Moonlight, 6 Nanyak Dala, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 2 Ray Barkwill, 1 Hubert Buydens.

Replacements: 16 Aaron Carpenter, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Evan Olmstead, 20 Kyle Gilmour, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Connor Trainor, 23 Harry Jones.

Date: Saturday, September 26

Venue: Elland Road, Leeds

Kick-off: 14.30 (13.30 GMT; 15.30 Italian time; 07.30 Canadian time)

Expected weather: Partly cloudy, a high of 16 with little to no wind

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Mike Fraser (New Zealand)

TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

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