Italy coach John Kirwan had the luxury of including Diego Dominguez as he named a 26-man squad for their Six Nations opener against Wales in Rome on Saturday.
Dominguez, Italy's most experienced player and highest points scorer, recently recovered from concussion while fellow flyhalf, Ramiro Pez, is also included despite injury concerns.
Pez picked up a shin injury during Italy's trial match with the World All Stars last Saturday.
Looking forward to a fresh campaign, Kirwan acknowledges the pressure is on Italy to end their unenviable run of defeats. Since Italy's victory over Wales in their inaugural Six Nations game three years ago, the Italians have recorded 14 straight defeats.
Kirwan believes they can buck that trend when the Wales visit the Italian capital this weekend:
"I'm fairly happy with what we've done so far but the Six Nations is a demanding competition and every team wants to win, including us," Kirwan said.
The ex-All Black, who took over from Brad Johnstone last March, said success would depend as much on his team's state of mind as on their abilities.
"We have to find our team spirit. It's a time of growth for the squad but I've got a lot of faith in what they can do. We'll go out there to fight.
"The most difficult match for Italy is the one this weekend," added Kirwan.
ForwardsMauro Bergamasco (Treviso), Ramiro Martinez (Treviso),Scott Palmer (Treviso), Martin Leandro Castrogiovanni (Calvisano),Giampiero De Carli (Calvisano), Andrea De Rossi (Calvisano), AndreaMoretti (Calvisano), Salvatore Perugini (Calvisano), Carlo Festuccia(Gran Parma), Marco Bortolami, (Padova), Cristian Bezzi (Viadana),Aaron Persico (Viadana), Matthew Phillips (Viadana), Mark Giacheri(Rotherham/Eng),
BacksDenis Dallan (Treviso), Nicola Mazzucato (Treviso), AlessandroTroncon (Treviso), Giovanni Raineri (Calvisano), Paolo Vaccari(Calvisano), Cristian Zanoletti (Calvisano), Mirco Bergamasco(Padova), Gert Peens (Overmach Parma). Ramiro Pez(Rotherham/Eng), Diego Dominguez (Stade Francais/Fra), Juan ManuelQueirolo (Dax/Fra), Cristian Stoica (Castres/Fra).
additional reporting by PA