Conor O’Shea wants Italy to learn from their mistakes when the Six Nations enters new territory on Friday as the Azzurri head to Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome to take on France, who are playing their first championship home game outside Paris.
Both sides lost their opening two fixtures – France by a combined total of eight points – but Italy conceded 15 tries and 102 points in being beaten by England and Ireland. The losers in Marseille will be favourites to prop up this season’s Six Nations table but O’Shea is far from downbeat.
“We have a young group which learns match after match,” the Italy head coach said. “We knew that the first two games against England and Ireland would be very tough but there were a lot of positives in our performance. A year ago the depth and the internal competition we can count on today were totally different, and I hope everyone in the environment will see the great progress we are making with Benetton and Zebre.
“In Dublin in the first half we did not do what we expected but it is important for us on Friday to learn from our mistakes and show our game plan, show off our rugby throughout the game. For us, Friday is a new opportunity. We must focus on ourselves, and I hope we can offer ourselves and our fans a performance to be proud of.”
O’Shea has made three changes from the side beaten by Ireland, with the prop Andrea Lovotti and the hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini both gaining starts, while Maxime Mbanda features in the back row, packing down alongside Sebastian Negri and the captain, Sergio Parisse, who wins his 132nd cap.
France have beaten Italy five times in succession, including a World Cup victory, but Les Bleus will be wary of Six Nations defeats against them in 2011 and 2013.
Their head coach, Jacques Brunel, changes five of the side edged out by Scotland at Murrayfield, including a new back three of Hugo Bonneval, Benjamin Fall and Rémy Grosso. The other switches are in midfield, where Toulon’s Mathieu Bastareaud partners Geoffrey Doumayrou, and at lock, with Paul Gabrillagues featuring alongside Sébastien Vahaamahina.
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