Watch every second of the 2026 Nations Championship live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nPaenga-Amosa and Potter come in for Josh Nasser (concussion) and Dylan Pietsch (calf contusion), with the Waratah set for his first appearance of the year.<\/p>\n
Tizzano’s last start came against Japan last year, featuring against Ireland and France off the bench to finish the year, starting ahead of Fraser McReight, who will finish off the game.<\/p>\n
“Fraser had a bit of a knock from the game. The flight didn’t help then and his knee was a bit immobile early in the week,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
“He was pretty quiet at training on Tuesday but he trained really well today.<\/p>\n
“That was the first part of it and second part of it is Carlo’s trained really well for us. He’s never let us down when he has played for us. Hometown, home track, against a team where he would have connections….There’s a real connection there for him.\u00a0As I say, we’ve got lots of confidence in the way he plays.”<\/p>\n
It’s a similar story for Potter, who started every game of the Spring Tour, while Paenga-Amosa has been rewarded for his extended stint last week, playing 77 minutes after Nasser’s early exit.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Amatosero is in line to become Wallaby #998 and the third debutant Schmidt has picked in as many Nations Championship matches.<\/p>\n
This includes flyhalf Declan Meredith, with Schmidt keeping the faith with the playmaker alongside club teammate Ryan Lonergan in the halves.<\/p>\n
Amatosero is among several new faces on the bench, including the returning Ben Donaldson (calf).<\/p>\n
Zane Nonggorr and Billy Pollard will make their first appearances of 2026, with McReight set for a rare appearance as a finisher.<\/p>\n
The Wallabies have lost their last two to Italy, but have never been defeated by the Italians on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve shown some encouraging signs but we need to sustain our accuracy and effort throughout the match,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge for us this week is to perform at a consistently high standard against a dangerous Italian side, who were hugely competitive in the Six Nations, beating both Scotland and England as well as running other teams close”<\/p>\n
Schmidt will depart his post at the end of the Test alongside assistant coach Laurie Fisher.<\/p>\n
Wallabies team to play Italy at HBF Park in Perth on Saturday July 18 at 6:00pm AWST\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. Angus Bell (52 Tests) – #940; Hunters Hill Rugby Club\u00a0<\/p>\n
2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa (27 Tests) – #918; Southern Districts<\/p>\n
3. Allan Alaalatoa (90 Tests) – #896; West Harbour Juniors<\/p>\n
4. Josh Canham (4 Tests) – #987; Harlequin Rugby Club<\/p>\n
5. Jeremy Williams (27 Tests) \u2013 #973; Wahroonga Tigers\u00a0<\/p>\n
6. Rob Valetini (64 Tests) – #929; Harlequin Rugby Club<\/p>\n
7. Carlo Tizzano (14 Tests) – #982; University of Western Australia<\/p>\n
8. Harry Wilson (c) (38 Tests) – #933; Gunnedah Red Devils\u00a0<\/p>\n
9. Ryan Lonergan (7 Tests) – #993; Tuggeranong Vikings<\/p>\n
10. Declan Meredith (1 Test) – #997; Barron Trinity Bulls<\/p>\n
11. Harry Potter (11 Tests) – #989; Moorabbin Rams<\/p>\n
12. Len Ikitau (52 Tests) – #944; Tuggeranong Vikings<\/p>\n
13. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii (20 Tests) – #988; The Kings School<\/p>\n
14. Max Jorgensen (22 Tests) – #984; Balmain Wolves<\/p>\n
15. Tom Wright (45 Tests) – #939; Clovelly Eagles<\/p>\n
Substitutes<\/p>\n
16. Billy Pollard (20 Tests) – #958; Lindfield Junior Rugby Club<\/p>\n
17. James Slipper (153 Tests) – #843; Bond Pirates<\/p>\n
18. Zane Nonggorr (19 Tests) – #966; Gold Coast Eagles<\/p>\n
19. Miles Amatosero* – uncapped; South Coogee Red Devils<\/p>\n
20. Fraser McReight (41 Tests) – #937; Albany Creek Brumbies\u00a0<\/p>\n
21. Tate McDermott (52 Tests) – #936; Flinders Rugby Club<\/p>\n
22. Ben Donaldson (20 Tests) – #962; Clovelly Eagles<\/p>\n
23. Filipo Daugunu (21 Tests) – #931; Wests Bulldogs<\/p>\n
*denotes potential Test debut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth-born flanker Carlo Tizzano is set for his maiden Wallabies start in 2026 against Italy in coach Joe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7536,25210,335,8285],"class_list":["post-51845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-italy","tag-nations-championship","tag-perth","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}