Injuries force Azzurri changes
The many injuries to frontline players sees the Azzurri reinvent their centre pairing, with Gonzalo Garcia and Tommaso Benvenuti in the run-on team, while the back three of Luke McLean, Leonardo Sarto and Giovanbattista Venditti remains unchanged.
Brunel has shown confidence in his halfback pairing of Edoardo Gori and Tommaso Allan with No.8 Vunisa flanked by the pair of Treviso flank Francesco Minto and Alessandro Zanni and the second row pair of Quintin Geldenhuys and Josh Furno retain their spots.
The only other changes to the team is in the front row where Leicester Tigers' Michele Rizzo and Wasps' Lorenzo Cittadini replacing Matias Aguero and Martin Castrogiovanni, respectively to set up an all Premiership front row.
Hooker Davide Giazzon is drafted in and will take his place on the bench where he is joined by Mauro Bergamasco, who can make his debut in his fifth World Cup.
The Azzurri and Canadians are meeting for the eighth time in history but their last, and only, previous meeting at the World Cup was in 2003 where Italy walked away 19-14 victors.
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.
Date: Saturday, September 26
Venue: Elland Road, Leeds
Kick-off: 14.30 (13.30 GMT; 15.30 Italian time; 07.30 Canadian time)
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)
