South African-born Tobias Botes will make his first start for Italy against Ireland in the Six Nations in Dublin on Saturday as one of four changes to the Azzurri team.

Having been left out against England, Alberto Sgarbi comes back in at outside centre in place of Gonzalo Canale.

The other two changes are in the front row where Michele Rizzo will make his first Six Nations appearance in place of the injured Martin Castrogiovanni.

Lorenzo Cittadini, making his first start in the tournament, is preferred to veteran Andrea Lo Cicero, who doesn’t even make the bench with Fabio Stabiano given that role instead.

Italy

Andrea Masi; Giovanbattista Venditti, Tommaso Benvenuti, Alberto Sgarbi, Luke McLean; Tobias Botes, Edoardo Gori; Sergio Parisse (capt), Robert Barbieri, Alessandro Zanni; Marco Bortolami, Quintin Geldenhuys; Lorenzo Cittadini, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Michele Rizzo

Replacements: Tommaso D’Apice, Fabio Staibano, Antonio Pavanello, Simone Favaro, Fabio Semenzato, Kris Burton, Gonzalo Canale