Louis Reiner, the son of Australian rugby great Michael Reiner, received his first call-up to Italy on Wednesday when he was named in the Azzurri’s Six Nations squad against France.
Gonzalo Quesada’s Italy side have lost two of their opening two games and will face Les Bleus in Paris on February 25th.
Winger Raina, 23, was born in Treviso, where his father played, and his mother is Italian, but moved to England when he was four years old.
On Monday, Raina decided to return to his birthplace by joining United Rugby Championship side Benetton Treviso from Harlequins.
He has a two-year contract with Treviso, with an option to extend until 2027, meaning he will join ahead of the 2024/25 season.
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Quesada will be without Sebastian Negri, Lorenzo Cannone, Edoardo Iacizzi and Pietro Ceccarelli.
Tommaso Allan, meanwhile, has been rested as the Perpignan flyhalf asked for a break from international rugby “after participating in all international quotas for 2023”.
Italy squad for the Six Nations match against France in Paris:
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Forwards (18): Matteo Canali (Parma), Niccolo Cannone (Treviso), Riccardo Fabretto (Treviso), Simone Ferrari (Treviso), Danilo Fischetti (Parma), Alessandro Isécole (Treviso), Michele Ramaro (Treviso), Gianmarco Lucchesi (Treviso), Marco Manfredi (Parma), Giacomo Nicotera (Treviso), Matteo Nocera (Parma), Luca Rizzoli (Parma), Federico Luzza (Treviso), Mirco Spagnuolo (Treviso), Ross Vincent (Exeter/English), Andrea Zambonin (Parma)), Giosue Girocchi (Treviso), Manuel Zuliani (Treviso)
Backs (15): Juan Ignacio Brex (Treviso), Ange Capozzo (Toulouse/France), Alessandro Garbisi (Treviso), Paolo Garbisi (Montpellier/France), Simone Jesse (Parma), Monti Ioane ( Lyon/France), Louis Riner (Treviso), Leonardo Marin (Treviso), Tommaso Menoncello (Treviso), François May (Clermont/France), Federico Mori (Bayonne/France), Martin Paget-Lillo ( Lyon/France), Lorenzo Pani (Parma), Stephen Varney (Gloucester/English), Marco Zanon (Treviso)
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