Italy name side to face Springboks in Nations Championship
· The South African
Australian-born wing Monty Ioane will make his 50th appearance for Italy in this weekend’s Nations Championship match against South Africa, after being named on Thursday in coach Gonzalo Quesada’s team.
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Ioane forms part of a back three including Toulouse wing Ange Capuozzo and Zebre fullback Mirko Belloni.
CONFIRMED | Manie Libbok to return to South Africa
Hat-trick of tries
Fresh from scoring a hat-trick of tries for Stade Francais in Saturday’s 43-24 Top 14 victory over La Rochelle, hooker Giacomo Nicotera will captain the side for just the second time.
Alongside him in the front row, Simone Ferrari will pack down at tighthead, with Muhamed Hasa at loosehead.
Ferrari and replacement back Tommaso Allan are the only two players in the matchday 23 who played in the Azzurri’s only ever victory over the Springboks in 19 previous attempts, a 20-18 success in Florence 10 years ago.
Paolo Odogwu joins Leonardo Marin in the centres in the absence of the injured Tommaso Menoncello and Juan Ignacio Brex.
Missing players
Quesada is missing 16 players, including captain Michele Lamaro and other key forwards Sebastian Negri and Andrea Zambonin.
Samuele Locatelli will make his debut at openside flanker in place of Lamaro with Alessandro Ortombina, who will make only his third appearance, at blindside.
Experienced pair Federico Ruzza and Niccolo Cannone will be in the engine room, while Lorenzo Cannone starts at No 8.
The match will be played in Turin, where a year ago, the world champion Springboks beat Italy 32-14 despite playing most of the match with 14 players after Franco Mostert’s early red card.
Kick-off is at 13:40 (SA time).
Teams
Italy15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (captain), 1 Muhamed Hasa
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan
South Africa15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok
Date: 7 November 2026
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Turin
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: James Doleman (New Zealand), Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)