SAMANTHA Murray will be bidding to make it two wins from two World Cup appearances when the third meeting takes place in Italy next week.

Clitheroe’s Murray, the reigning world champion, took victory in the first round of the series in the USA before being rested for round two in Egypt.

MORE TOP STORIES:

But the 25-year-old is back in a four-strong women’s team for the event which runs from April 8-13.

Murray is joined by Kate French, who was third in the opening round, Freyja Prentice and Joanna Muir.

Pentathlon GB Performance Director Jan Bartu believes his team will face their strongest competition of the year so far in Rome.

“I expect that this World Cup will be the best attended of the season up to this point,” he said.

“There will be plenty of teams from Asia taking part, which wasn’t the case in Cairo.

“I would not like to predict anything in terms of performance but I would like to see all of our team feature in the final stages.

“Samantha, Kate and Freyja have all done really well this season and there will be expectation on their side but every single competition is different.”

Double Olympian Nick Woodbridge will make his first World Cup appearance for two years after being named in the men’s squad.

Woodbridge – who competed at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games – has struggled with hip problems during the past couple of years and last appeared at a World Cup in China in April 2013.

Woodbridge is joined by Tom Toolis, Joe Choong and Joe Evans, who is making his third World Cup appearance of the season.

Bartu added: “Nick Woodbridge is returning to the World Cup stage and it will be good to see what he is capable of doing at this stage of his comeback.”

The Rome World Cup is the latest major competition in a big year for Pentathlon GB, which includes the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualification period.

Murray and company will also be building towards the European Championships on home soil later this year. That will be a crucial marker on the Road to Rio, where Murray will aim to be among the medals once again having finished second in London 2012.

The Euros take place at the University of Bath from August 18-23.