Marco Riccioni and Callum Braley will make their Test debuts for Italy as Dean Budd leads the Azzurri against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
Benetton tighthead Riccioni, a former standout at Under-20 level, will start in the front row, while Braley is named as scrum-half cover on the bench.
He will be joined there by Matteo Minozzi, the 2018 Player of the Championship nominee, who is set to make his return to action after missing all of last season through injury.
Conor O’Shea has handed the captaincy to Budd for this game, the Benetton forward starting in the second row alongside Alessandro Zanni.
That means an all-Zebre back row of Giovanni Licata, Maxime Mbandà and Jimmy Tuivaiti, with loosehead Nicola Quaglio and hooker Oliviero Fabiani completing the pack.
In the backs, Guglielmo Palazzani links up with Zebre teammate Carlo Canna in the half-backs, while Marco Zanon wins his second cap at inside centre, having made his debut in the Guinness Six Nations 2019 finale against France.
He will be paired up with Tommaso Benvenuti in the midfield, while Angelo Esposito and Giulio Bisegni get the starts on the wing.
Finally, Edoardo Padovani, who scored three tries in the 2019 Championship, starts at full-back for the Aviva Stadium encounter.
O’Shea said: “Saturday will be a good challenge. They are a very strong team and in front of their home crowd will want to play well. It will be a great opportunity for lots of players to show what they can do to try to earn a place at the World Cup.
“I can’t wait to see Italy out there after the work we have done up to this point.”
This is the first of four warm-up matches for Italy in the build-up to the World Cup, with clashes against Russia, France and England to come.
Italy team to face Ireland 15. Edoardo Padovani (Zebre) 14. Angelo Esposito (Benetton) 13. Tommaso Benvenuti (Benetton) 12. Marco Zanon (Benetton) 11. Giulio Bisegni (Zebre) 10. Carlo Canna (Zebre) 9. Guglielmo Palazzani (Zebre) 1. Nicola Quaglio (Benetton) 2. Oliviero Fabiani (Zebre) 3. Marco Riccioni (Benetton) 4. Alessandro Zanni (Benetton) 5. Dean Budd (Benetton) (c) 6. Giovanni Licata (Zebre) 7. Maxime Mbandà (Zebre) 8. Jimmy Tuivaiti (Zebre) Replacements: 16. Federico Zani (Benetton) 17. Andrea Lovotti (Zebre) 18. Simone Ferrari (Benetton) 19. Marco Lazzaroni (Benetton) 20. Renato Giammarioli (Zebre) 21. Callum Braley (Gloucester) 22. Ian McKinley (Benetton) 23. Matteo Minozzi (Wasps)
