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Rome - Italy's new coach Conor O'Shea has gambled on a youthful line-up sprinkled with a few old heads for his first home match in charge, against the All Blacks on Saturday.
The Irishman has handed Treviso's Giorgio Bronzini an international debut at scrum in an untested half-back partnership with Carlo Canna, who has only 12 caps to his name.
But he has also recalled skipper Sergio Parisse, who will win a record 120th cap in the back row, and veteran hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, for whom it will be an 82nd international appearance.
Both men missed the summer tour of the Americas in which O'Shea's squad lost to Argentina but secured narrow victories over the United States and Canada.
Parisse will be breaking the appearances record he had shared with Martin Castrogiovanni.
The Argentinian-born prop has not played since being suspended by his French club Racing 92 earlier this year over an unauthorised party trip to Las Vegas.
Adding to the quotient of experience in the starting XV is Australian-born Luke McLean, who also wins his 82nd cap, at inside centre.
O'Shea's back three of fullback Edoardo Padovani and wings Giulio Bisegni and Angelo Esposito have just 12 international appearances between them.
The second row combination of South African-born Andries van Schalkwyk and Marco Fuser is untried and flank Maxime Mbanda will be making his first appearance on Italian soil after winning his first two caps against the USA and Canada.
It will be the 14th meeting between the two countries with New Zealand having won all the previous encounters.
Teams:
Italy
15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Giulio Bisegni, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Luke McLean, 11 Angelo Esposito, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Giorgio Bronzini, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Simone Favaro, 6 Maxime Mbanda, 5 Andries van Schalkwyk, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Substitutes: 16 Ornel Gega, 17 Sami Panico, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 George Biagi, 20 Francesco Minto, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Tommaso Boni
New Zealand
15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 11 Waisake Naholo, 10 Aaron Cruden, 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 8 Steven Luatua, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Elliot Dixon, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett
Substitutes: 16 Liam Coltman, 17 Joe Moody, 18 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Matt Todd, 21 Aaron Smith, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 Rieko Ioane
