Australian-born Kris Burton will line up at fly-half in Italy’s Six Nations opener against France in Paris.
Burton is looking forward to his opportunity, having been overlooked by previous coach Nick Mallett for the World Cup.
He qualifies to play for Italy through his mother’s ancestry, moving there after failing to get selected for Super 12 at the Queensland Reds.
With Luciano Orquera injured, Burton will be handed Italy’s kicking and play-making duties.
“It’s a big opportunity. I take every start or every time I get on the field with Italy as an opportunity to prove myself and show I can play at this level,” he said.
“I hope this weekend I can prove that I can move the team around and forward properly and show that I can read the game.”
New Italy coach Jacques Brunel also picked uncapped winger Giovanbattista Venditti and opted for a youthful and inexperienced backline, with Edoardo Gori coming in at scrum-half and Tommaso Benvenuti and Alberto Sgarbi getting the nod at centre ahead of the vastly more experienced Gonzalo Canale, who is on the bench.
Burton lines up with South African-born Tobias Botes, who was a late call-up on Tuesday, sitting on the bench and set to possibly make his debut.
Botes is first-choice scrum-half at Treviso with Fabio Semenzato, also on the bench against France, second-choice; Gori is only third-choice at club level.
But Brunel has his own ideas and intends to follow them, with Botes not even being considered as a scrum-half.
“I’ve not brought him in to compete with the scrum-halves. He’s a fly-half and a kicker but then we’ll see how things go throughout the tournament,” said the Frenchman.
“Our problem is more finding potential at fly-half rather than at scrum-half, where we have more choices with Semenzato, Gori and (Tito) Tebaldi.”
Up front, the only surprise was that Mauro Bergamasco was not even afforded a place on the bench, while Robert Barbieri starts in the back row alongside captain Sergio Parisse and Alessandro Zanni.
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