Italy bring in Braley, Nicotera for Scotland game

Italy have made two changes to their starting XI for Saturday's Six Nations clash against Scotland in Rome on Saturday with coach Kieran Crowley bringing in scrum-half Callum Braley and hooker Giacomo Nicotera.

Braley replaces the injured Stephen Varney, while Nicotera is set to earn his first test cap after being drafted in for Gianmarco Lucchesi, who was also injured in their humilating 57-6 loss to Ireland in their last match.

With regular replacement hooker Epalahame Faiva also unavailable after being shown a red card against Ireland, Crowley has named former captain Luca Bigi on the bench.

Ange Capuozzo, the other debutant in the squad, has been named among the replacements.

"We face a team that has shown its worth in previous outings of the tournament. We have the opportunity to play in front of our fans: we want to turn the page and react on the pitch with an important performance," Crowley said.

Italy are bottom of the standings after losing all three of their games so far.

Italy team:

15-Edoardo Padovani, 14-Pierre Bruno, 13-Juan Ignacio Brex, 12-Leonardo Marin, 11-Montanna Ioane, 10-Paolo Garbisi, 9-Callum Braley, 8-Toa Halafihi, 7-Michele Lamaro,(C) 6-Giovanni Pettinelli, 5-Federico Ruzza, 4-Niccolo Cannone, 3-Pietro Ceccarelli, 2-Giacomo Nicotera, 1-Danilo Fischetti

Replacements: 16-Luca Bigi, 17-Ivan Nemer, 18-Giosue Zilocchi, 19-David Sisi, 20-Manuel Zuliani, 21-Alessandro Fusco, 22-Marco Zanon, 23-Ange Capuozzo

(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Toby Davis and Ken Ferris)