Italy have competed in all the Rugby World Cup tournaments, having made their first appearance in the inaugural 1987 tournament. They have finished third in their pool at every tournament, except in 1999, the only tournament where they lost more than two games. Having never finished in the top two in their pool, they have never qualified to progress to the quarter-finals. They have won the most matches of those that have never made it to the quarter-finals.

Because they finished third in Pool C of the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, they automatically qualified to compete in the 2011 tournament in New Zealand.

Squad

Martin Castrogiovanni, prop, age 29, caps 78

Lorenzo Cittadini, prop, age 28, caps 6

Andrea Lo Cicero, prop, age 35, caps 88

Salvatore Perugini, prop, age 33, caps 80

Tommaso D'Apice, hooker, age 23, caps 2

Leonardo Ghiraldini, hooker, age 26, caps 38

Fabio Ongaro, hooker, age 33, caps 77

Marco Bortolami, second-row, age 31, caps 85

Carlo Del Fava, second row, age 30, caps 53

Quintin Geldenhuys, second-row, age 30, caps 22

Cornelius Van Zyl, second-row, age 32, caps 2

Robert Barbieri, flanker, age 27, caps 15

Mauro Bergamasco, flanker, age 32, caps 85

Paul Derbyshire, flanker, age 24, caps 12

Alessandro Zanni, flanker, age 27, caps 54

Sergio Parisse (c), No8, age 27, caps 79

Pablo Canavosio, scrum-half, age 29, caps 37

Edoardo Gori, scrum-half, age 21, caps 5

Fabio Semenzato, scrum-half, age 25, caps 5

Riccardo Bocchino, fly-half, age 23, caps 8

Luciano Orquera, fly-half, age 29, caps 24

Gonzalo Canale, centre, age 28, caps 68

Gonzalo Garcia, centre, age 27, caps 22

Matteo Pratichetti, centre, age 26, caps 23

Alberto Sgarbi, centre, age 24, caps 13

Tommaso Benvenuti, wing, age 20, caps 8

Mirco Bergamasco, wing, age 28, caps 82

Giulio Toniolatti, wing, age 27, caps 6

Andrea Masi, full-back, age 30, caps 61

Luke McLean, full-back, age 24, caps 28.