Lock Marco Bortolami will make his 80th appearance for Italy this weekend in an unchanged starting line-up for the Six Nations match against Scotland.

Bortolami, who made his debut in 2001, becomes only the fourth Italian to reach 80 caps.

The only change following the 17-12 loss to England in the last round is in the reserves where replacement lock Carlo Del Fava makes an unexpected return following knee surgery that was thought to have ruled him out of the tournament.

The halfback pairing of Tito Tebaldi and Craig Gower will both win their ninth caps on Saturday at Rome's Stadio Flaminio, and wing Mirco Bergamasco is likely to continue with the goalkicking duties after scoring all of Italy's points against England.

"Against England we showed that we have developed," Tebaldi said.

"We have a solid base to build on and we can use it to do even better against Scotland. We all know that Italy is a competitive team in the scrum, but under (coaches) Nick Mallett and Alessandro Troncon we are starting to see results in our backline play.

"Scotland has great continuity in its play and we have to stop them and then get the ball out to our backs as quickly as possible. I'm convinced that playing in such a way we can win."

Italy's only Six Nations win under Mallett came against Scotland in 2008, when a late Andrea Marcato drop goal secured a 23-20 win.

Italy: Luke McLean, Andrea Masi, Gonzalo Canale, Gonzalo Garcia, Mirco Bergamasco, Craig Gower, Tito Tebaldi; Salvatore Perugini, Leonardo Ghiraldini (capt), Martin Castrogiovanni, Quintin Geldenhuys, Marco Bortolami, Josh Sole, Mauro Bergamasco, Alessandro Zanni. Res: Fabio Ongaro, Matias Aguerro, Carlo Del Fava, Paul Derbyshire, Pablo Canavosio, Riccardo Bocchino, Kaine Robertson.

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