Vintcent in Italy Squad for First Round of 2025 Guinness Six Nations

Back rower Ross Vintcent has been named on the Italian bench as the Azzurri prepare to take on Scotland in Edinburgh this Saturday.

Gonzalo Quesada, Head Coach of the Italian Men's National Team, has announced his line-up for the match at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday 1 February [14:15].

It will be the 38th confrontation between the two teams, the 19th in Scotland: the record is 28 victories for the Scots and nine Azzurri victories, the last coming in March 2024 when Michele Lamaro lifted the "Cuttitta Cup" which, on Saturday, will return as the two national teams celebrate the memory of Massimo Cuttitta, historic captain of Italy and coach of the Scottish forwards.

Tommaso Allan, the blue with the most caps and the leading Italian points scorer in the history of the tournament, is deployed at full-back together with wingers Ange Capuozzo and Monty Ioane - the Stade Toulousain back who made his debut for Italy against Scotland by scoring two tries at the Stadio Olimpico in the 2022 Six Nations.

The centre partnership is formed by Brex – scorer of a try and named Guinness Player of the Match last year in Rome against the Scots – and Menoncello, MVP of the 2024 Tournament with Quesada entrusting the keys to the midfield to Paolo Garbisi and Martin Page-Relo.

In the back row Lorenzo Cannone starts at number 8 with captain Lamaro and Sebastian Negri the flankers. In the second row, together with Federico Ruzza, there will be Dino Lamb who will make his debut in the oldest rugby tournament in the world. In the front row Fischetti, Nicotera and Ferrari will lead the blue scrum.

On the bench, the rookie Rizzoli is ready to collect his first cap. Lucchesi, Riccioni, Niccolò Cannone, Zuliani, Vintcent, Alessandro Garbisi and Simone Gesi - who won his first and only cap with Italy against Scotland at Murrayfield two years ago - are all named.

Italy:

15 Tommaso Allan (Perpignan, 81 caps)

14 Ange Capuozzo (Stade Toulousain, 23 caps)

13 Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton Rugby, 41 caps)

12 Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton Rugby, 23 caps)

11 Monty Ioane (Lyon, 35 caps)

10 Paolo Garbisi (Toulon, 42 caps)

9 Martin Page-Relo (Lyon, 13 caps)

8 Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 23 caps)

7 Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby, 43 caps) – captain

6 Sebastian Negri (Benetton Rugby, 58 caps)

5 Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby, 59 caps)

4 Dino Lamb (Harlequins, 9 caps)

3 Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby, 59 caps)

2 Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Francais, 28 caps)

1 Danilo Fischetti (Zebre Parma, 47 caps)

Replacements:

16 Gianmarco Lucchesi (Toulon, 28 caps)

17 Luca Rizzoli (Zebre Parma, debutant)

18 Marco Riccioni (Saracens, 30 caps)

19 Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 47 caps)

20 Manuel Zuliani (Benetton Rugby, 27 caps)

21 Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs, 9 caps)

22 Alessandro Garbisi (Benetton Rugby, 13 caps)

23 Simone Gesi (Zebre Parma, 1 cap)