Italy rugby coach Nick Mallett on Wednesday named his squad for Saturday's test match against Australia in Padua, the first of three warm-ups ahead of the Six Nations.
Mallett named a new all-Argentine centre pairing of Clermont Auvergne's Gonzalo Canale, who has now won 42 caps at the age of 25, and Gonzalo Garcia of Cammi Calvisano, 24, who earns his third cap after impressing on Italy's southern hemisphere tour last summer where he became the 27th Argentine to play for Italy.
Andrea Marcato of Benetton Treviso, whose 80th-minute conversion of a Leonardo Ghiraldini try gave Italy a thrilling 13-12 win over Argentina in Cordoba on June 28, wins his second cap at fly half and 9th in all.
Pablo Canavasio, who has won most of his 21 previous caps on the wing, comes in as Marcato's partner at scrum half.
Captain Sergio Parisse of Stade Francais, another Argentine-born player, pulls on the No.8 jersey for the 55th time.
As expected, his back-row partners are Mauro Bergamasco, also of Stade Francais, and Josh Sole of Montepaschi Viadana.
Mallett is using the Australia match, a rematch with the Argentines in Turin on November 15, and a game against the Pacific Islanders in Reggio Emilia on November 22 as a platform to push on in the Six Nations.
The former South Africa coach, who replaced Pierre Berbizier after the 2007 World Cup, could not repeat the Frenchman's feat of winning two Six Nations games in 2007.
Italy finished bottom of the championship again last spring, winning only one game.
Mallett said ahead of the three-match challenge that his first year at the helm, including the summer tour that also saw a 26-0 defeat by world champions South Africa, had been ''exciting''.
He said Italy had a ''great group spirit'' but acknowledged that he had had problems in ''moulding the team''.
Next year's Six Nations schedule sees Italy facing England away on February 9, Ireland at home on February 15, Scotland away on February 28, Wales at home on March 14 and France at home on March 21.
Here is the team for the Australia match (club and previous caps in brackets):
15 Andrea Masi (Biarritz Olympique, 41 caps), 14 Kaine Robertson (Montepaschi Viadana, 32 caps), 13 Gonzalo Canale (Clermont Auvergne, 41 caps), 12 Gonzalo Garcia (Cammi Calvisano, 2 caps), 11 Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais, 53 caps), 10 Andrea Marcato (Benetton Treviso, 9 caps), 9 Pablo Canavasio (Montepaschi Viadana, 20 caps), 8 Sergio Parisse (captain, (Stade Francais, 54 caps)), 7 Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais, 65 caps), 6 Josh Sole (Montepaschi Viadana, 30 caps), 5 Marco Bortolami (Gloucester RFC, 67 caps), 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava (Ulster Branch, 30 caps), 3 Carlos Nieto (Gloucester RFC, 28 caps), 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (Cammi Calvisano, 13 caps), 1 Salvatore Perugini (Stade Toulousain, 52 caps).
Substitutes: 16 Fabio Ongaro (Saracens, 56 caps), 17 Matias Aguero (Saracens, 8 caps), 18 Tommaso Reato (Femi CZ Rovigo, 3 caps), 19 Alessandro Zanni (Cammi Calvisano, 24 caps), 20 Giulio Toniolatti (Almaviva UR Capitolina, uncapped), 21 Luciano Orquera (Brive, 10 caps), 22 Matteo Pratichetti (Cammi Calvisano, 10 caps).
The other four members of the 26-man squad, Santiago Dellape' (RC Toulon, 52 caps), Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro Paris, 76 caps), Luke McLean (Cammi Calvisano, 2 caps) and Riccardo Pavan (Overmach Cariparma, 1 cap), did not make the cut.
