Tonetti is also capped at 7's level for Ireland making him ineligible.

Sounds like a load of Rubbish to me

It would also have helped if 2 of the players listed (Browne and O'Connor) hadn't played for the A/Wolfhounds team, thus committing them to Ireland.

Would probably have been better to have posted this yesterday

Apparently talks are taking place between the Branch and the Italian federation about establishing a link whereby Connacht would act as a feeder to the Italians and specified players within the Connacht system would qualify to play for Italy after the standard 3 year residency requirement had passed.
The players involved would of course not have already played for Ireland (or any other IRB nation). We know about Italy's chronic problems at 10, and there is interest in both NOC and Miah. Other players interesting the Italians are Andrew Browne (Geldenhuys and Bortolami are both getting on, and second row is a problem area for the Azzurri) and Tonetti.