Italy are looking for their first win of the 2023 Six Nations in the final round against Scotland at Murrayfield today.
Kieran Crowley’s side have been much improved during the tournament but have just missed out on bagging a victory. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, whose side have two wins so far, has said the team are aware of the threat Italy pose.
“There will be a lot to play for,” Townsend said. “It’ll be our last game of the campaign and we want a very good performance. We’ll have to play very well, Italy have been very unlucky against some of the top teams, they pushed France close and Ireland very close, they had a three on one overlap to take the lead with less than 10 minutes to play.
“On Saturday they had 10 linebreaks against Wales. They’re a very dangerous team and last year at this time they went to Cardiff and had a historic win so we have to quickly turn our focus to Italy and how to win that game.” Here is all you need to know about the fixture.
When is Scotland vs Italy and what TV channel is it on?
The match will kick-off at 12.30pm BST on Saturday 18 March. It will be shown on BBC One as well as BBC iPlayer.
What is the team news?
Scotland have made four changes to their starting XV with Ollie Smith and Blair Kinghorn in for the injured Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell.
They slot into an otherwise unchanged line-up in the backs, including top try scorer of the tournament centre Huw Jones. In the forwards, Sam Skinner and Hamish Watson come in with Matt Fagerson dropped to the bench and Richie Gray out injured. Cameron Redpath is set for his first appearance of the tournament as he starts from the bench.
Italy too make four changes to their starting line-up. Exciting young flyer Simone Gesi comes in on the wing with Edoardo Padovani out of the matchday 23 and Alessandro Fusco is at scrum-half with Stephen Varney out.
In the forwards, Marco Riccioni starts at prop and Edoardo Iachizzi is at lock with Niccolo Cannone dropped to the bench.
Scotland v Italy line-ups
Scotland: Ollie Smith; Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe; Blair Kinghorn, Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Sam Skinner, Jonny Gray, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, WP Nel, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Ali Price, Ben Healy, Cameron Redpath
Italy: Tommaso Allan; Pierre Bruno, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Simone Gesi; Paolo Garbisi, Alessandro Fusco; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Marco Riccioni, Edoardo Iachizzi, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro, Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Marco Manifredi, Federrico Zani, Pietro Ceccarelli, Niccolo Cannone, Giovanni Pettinelli, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Garbisi, Luca Morisi.
Odds
Scotland - 1/10
Draw - 45/1
Italy - 6/1
