The second fixture in Pool A of the 2023 Rugby World Cup will see Italy taking on Namibia in Saturday's lunchtime kickoff at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Etienne.
Italy come into this match off the back of a 42-12 win over Japan in a warm-up match at the end of August, while Namibia pulled off a 28-26 win over the Chileans in Temuco a few weeks ago.
Match preview
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While France and New Zealand, who play in the tournament's opening match, are expected to qualify from this Pool, Italy have established themselves as the next most likely to qualify if either of the favourites were to fluff their lines.
Kieran Crowley's side have come on leaps and bounds over the last 12 months, and while they were the recipients of the wooden spoon in the Six Nations for an eighth successive year, it does not tell the full story of their performance in the competition.
Azurri began that tournament with an incredible performance against Les Bleus at Stadio Olimpico and were leading the match 24-22 heading into the final ten minutes before Matthieu Jalibert got over the try line to save his side's blushes.
They managed another good performance a couple of weeks later against the world number one Ireland and were at no point taken apart by any of the higher-ranked sides in the competition.
During their warm-up matches, Italy were impressive yet again, putting up solid challenges against Scotland and Ireland before dismantling Romania 57-7 and seeing off Japan 42-21 in their final Test before this match.
These sides met in the 2019 World Cup hosted by Japan, and Italy overcame Namibia 47-22 in that match, scoring seven tries and six conversions, while their opponents managed only three tries, two conversions and a penalty in response.
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Namibia will be making their sixth consecutive Rugby World Cup appearance here, having qualified for every tournament since 1999, though they are yet to claim their first-ever win in a World Cup match.
The Welwitschias will be hoping to change that in this year's competition and will likely target this fixture, as well as their encounter against Uruguay, as their best chances to achieve that feat, with France and New Zealand firmly expected to top the Pool.
Allister Coetzee's side qualified for the World Cup by winning the 2022 Africa Cup here in France, which included a 71-5 win over Burkina Faso in the quarter-final, a 34-19 win over Zimbabwe in the semi-final and a 36-0 demolishing of Kenya in the final match.
However, ranked 21st in the World Rugby Rankings, Namibia are the lowest-ranked team in Pool A and are the joint-biggest outsiders, along with Romania, to win the Webb Ellis Cup according to pre-match odds.
The Namibians were competitive against Italy the last time the sides met and would have got a huge boost of confidence from their win over Chile in the lead-up to the tournament. However, it is going to take an incredible effort to beat this improving Azurri outfit.
Italy form (all competitions):
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- W
Namibia form (all competitions):
- W
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
Team News
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Coach Crowley has made two changes to the side he fielded against Japan, with Dino Lamb and Danilo Fischetti stepping in to replace Niccolo Cannone and Ivan Nemer.
Monty Ioane scored a hat-trick of tries against Japan last time out and retains his position in the back three along with Ange Capuozzo on the opposite flank and Tommaso Allan at full-back.
Juan Ignacio Brex and Luca Morisi will play in the middle of the park with Paolo Garbisi and Stephen Varney in the halfback pair, while Michele Lamaro will captain the side.
Meanwhile, Namibia's team features several experienced faces, with as many as eight players who played against Italy in the 2019 World Cup returning for this encounter.
Torsten van Jaarsveld, Johan Coetzee, Desiderius Sethie and Tjiuee Uanivi have all earned starts in the pack for this match, while former Wallabies international Richard Hardwick will play in the number eight role.
Johan Deysel captains the Namibians for the 15th time and will come within two matches of surpassing Jacques Burger as the second-most capped captain behind Gerhard Mans.
Italy starting lineup: 15. Tommaso Allan, 14. Ange Capuozzo, 13. Juan Ignacio Brex, 12. Luca Morisi, 11. Monty Ioane, 10. Paolo Garbisi, 9. Stephen Varney, 8. Lorenzo Cannone, 7. Michele Lamaro (c), 6. Sebastian Negri, 5. Federico Ruzza, 4. Dino Lamb, 3. Simone Ferrari, 2. Giacomo Nicotera, 1. Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16. Epalahame Faiva, 17. Ivan Nemer, 18. Marco Riccioni, 19. David Sisi, 20. Manuel Zuliani, 21. Martin Page-Relo, 22. Paolo Odogwu, 23. Pierre Bruno
Namibia starting lineup: 15. Divan Rossouw, 14. Gerswin Mouton, 13. Johan Deysel (c), 12. Danco Burger, 11. JC Greyling, 10. Tiaan Swanepoel, 9. Damian Stevens, 8. Richard Hardwick, 7. Johan Retief, 6. Wian Conradie, 5. Tjiuee Uanivi, 4. Adriaan Ludick, 3. Johan Coetzee, 2. Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1. Desiderius Sethie
Replacements: 16. Louis van der Westhuizen, 17. Jason Benade, 18. Casper Viviers, 19. Tiaan De Klerk, 20. Prince Gaoseb, 21. Jacques Theron, 22. Andre van der Bergh, 23. Le Roux Malan.
Head To Head
Italy and Namibia have met on four occasions in the past, and they have both won two matches each. However, only one of those were in competition, and that was their World Cup encounter in 2019, which the Italians won 47-22.
We say: Italy 49-19 Namibia
While France and New Zealand are expected to dominate Pool A, Italy will know that they need to be flawless against the other teams to stay in with a chance of qualifying if they can pull off an upset against either of the two powerhouses in the group.
Azurri should run away with this one, and we are expecting a winning margin in the region of 30 points.
No Data Analysis info
Devesh Jaganath
