Anthem time. Romania's ditty is enthusiastically belted out by the Oaks players and fans...but they are soon beaten on the decibel meter by the Italians. Azzurri fans wave their mini Il Tricolore flags as arguably the finest national anthem in the world is sung with gusto.

Image source, Getty Images

So it is an unfamiliar scene at Sandy Park as Romania stand-in skipper Valentin Ursache and his counterpart for the day Quintin Geldenhuys stand at the front of the two teams. Plenty of Azzuri blue and Oaks yellow is packed into the World Cup's smallest stadium.

Image source, Rex Features

And, for all of you on tenterhooks after our little teaser about Romania missing their own captain, here's the lowdown...

Mihai Macovei has been suspended for two weeks for a dangerous tackle in the 17-15 win over Canada on Tuesday.

Daniel Carpo takes up Macovei's number eight role with flanker Valentin Ursache named as captain.

Brent Pilnick, BBC Sport

Italy centre Michele Campagnaro gets the biggest cheer so far. Unsurprising though, seeing as he moved to Exeter this summer. This will be the first game he has ever played at Sandy Park and he'll no doubt be hoping to make a good impression as his new boss Rob Baxter looks on from the stands. 

Italy head coach Jacques Brunel makes just two changes to the starting line-up that lost 16-9 to Ireland last Sunday.

As we've just informed you, captain Sergio Parisse drops out of the match-day 23, and is replaced in the back row by Alessandro Zanni.

The other change sees Tommaso Benvenuti come in at inside centre for Gonzalo Garcia.

However, there is a huge captain-shaped hole in each of the teams in Exeter today.

Sergio Parisse's World Cup is over after he was ruled out of Italy's final Pool D match against Romania with a recurrence of a calf problem.

The 32-year-old missed Italy's first two matches before managing 65 minutes in Sunday's 16-9 loss to Ireland.

"I would only be at about 55% for a match which you need to be near 100%," says the Stade Francais number eight.

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Of course, Romania's task might have been more difficult had they not earned a morale-boosting win against Canada. And it wasn't just any bog-standard win. It was a biggest-comeback-in-World-Cup-history kind of win.

The powerful Romanians scored 17 points in the final 28 minutes to beat Canada 17-15 on a dramatic afternoon in Leicester.

Image source, Reuters

Admittedly, it is hardly as mouthwatering as an outright scrap for a place in the knockout phase. But for Italy and Romania, finishing third in Pool D is equally important.

The Azzurri currently have their mitts on that important spot, having earned a bonus point more than the Romanians.

So that means that whoever wins today will clinch third place - behind Ireland and France - and be able to plan ahead to Japan 2019 without having to faff about with the inconvenience of the qualification process.

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"The winner takes it all...the loser's standing small...beside the victory...that's her destiny."

Swedish supergroup Abba clearly did not pen their pop classic 'The Winner Takes It All' with a Rugby World Cup pool match in mind.

But the players of Italy and Romania might well be humming the chorus in their minds today. Because it is winner takes all between the two nations.

Their destiny? An automatic spot in the 2019 tournament.