Team captain Sarahjane Belton is eagerly anticipating the final weekend in the Women’s Six Nations championship as Ireland gun for their first ever back-to-back victories.
Belton and company turned in their best display of the season when running three tries past Scotland for a history-making 18-6 win in Edinburgh last weekend.
Irish coach John O’Sullivan has named an unchanged side for this Saturday’s clash with Italy at the Stadio Tre Fontane in Rome (kick-off 11am local time).
Belton, who scored a try in last week’s win in Scotland, said: “We’re really looking forward to the game this weekend. We were delighted with the win over Scotland but we weren’t overjoyed with our performance in certain areas.
“We’ll be working on those aspects when we assemble today for a squad session before our departure,” added the UL Bohemians full-back, who will be making her 55th appearance for her country in Rome.
Italy have swapped places with Spain to feature in this year’s Six Nations championship – they lost to 24-0 to Wales last weekend.
“We played Italy a few years ago in a European competition and we won well. But that was then and they are a different side now,” said Belton.
“I have not seen them play this season but saw clips of their game against England which they lost 23-0. That was in their first outing and England are very strong this year and hence, it wouldn’t be right to judge the Italians on their performance in that game.
“We’re expecting a very hard battle in the forwards, but we believe we can win. Two wins in successive games would bring our season to a happy ending and there’s no reason why we can’t achieve that.”
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