Guinness Six Nations Preview: Italy v Ireland

With Wales ending England’s winning start to the Guinness Six Nations, defending champions Ireland know that a bonus point win over Italy in Rome would move them up to third in the table and leave them just three points off the summit.

2019 GUINNESS SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sunday, February 24

ITALY (6th) v IRELAND (5th), Stadio Olimpico, 4pm local time/3pm Irish time (live Virgin Media One/ITV/UTV/FR2/DMAX/NBC/RTÉ Radio 1/BBC Radio Ulster/IRFU Live Blog)

Team News: Sean Cronin replaces Rory Best at hooker and Peter O’Mahony takes over the captaincy as Ireland resume their Guinness Six Nations campaign against Conor O’Shea’s Italy in Rome this afternoon.

Head coach Joe Schmidt has made four changes to the team that started the 22-13 win in Scotland, bringing in Cronin for a long-awaited first Championship start – he made his Six Nations debut back in March 2010 – and also adding Dave Kilcoyne, Ultan Dillane and Jordi Murphy to the pack.

It will be flanker O’Mahony’s first time to captain Ireland in a Six Nations match, having first skippered his country on the 2013 summer tour to the USA and Canada and recently led the tour party in Australia last summer.

Kilcoyne and Dillane join Cronin in making their first Six Nations starts, with Quinn Roux combining with Dillane in an all-Connacht second row pairing. Tadhg Furlong completes the front row and the versatile Murphy gets the nod at number 8, his last start in the position coming four years ago against England.

There are milestone appearances for Jonathan Sexton and Conor Murray who are Ireland’s starting half-backs for the 50th time. It is cap number 75 for Keith Earls on the right wing, while the rest of the unchanged back-line features Rob Kearney, Jacob Stockdale and centres Chris Farrell, who has shaken off a knee injury, and Bundee Aki.

The replacements bench includes Connacht out-half Jack Carty who could become Ireland’s latest debutant, while Niall Scannell, who won his first cap in Rome two years ago, Jack McGrath, John Ryan, the fit-again Iain Henderson and Andrew Conway are all set to be capped for the first time in this year’s Six Nations.

Meanwhile, Italy head coach Conor O’Shea, facing the country he earned 35 caps for in his playing days, has reshuffled his pack from the Wales defeat and made five changes. Concussion rules out talismanic number 8 and captain Sergio Parisse, so Toulouse hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini leads the team.

Well-travelled Benetton scrum half Tito Tebaldi returns from injury to offer experience behind the pack, where there are four changes. Maxime Mbandà and Jimmy Tuivaiti come into the back row in place of Parisse and Sebastian Negri, joining the versatile Braam Steyn who switches to the base of the scrum.

Benetton’s Federico Ruzza earns his first international start, partnering his Benetton club-mate Simone Ferrari in the second row, and Andrea Lovotti from Zebre has recovered from the flu to start at loosehead prop. The Italian bench features Dubliner and former Leinster out-half Ian McKinley who played against Ireland in Chicago in November.

Guinness Six Nations Results/Fixtures

Guinness Six Nations Table

ITALY: Jayden Hayward (Benetton Rugby); Edoardo Padovani (Zebre), Michele Campagnaro (Wasps), Luca Morisi (Benetton Rugby), Angelo Esposito (Benetton Rugby); Tommaso Allan (Benetton Rugby), Tito Tebaldi (Benetton Rugby); Andrea Lovotti (Zebre), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Toulouse) (capt), Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby), Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby), Dean Budd (Benetton Rugby), Jimmy Tuivaiti (Zebre), Maxime Mbandà (Zebre), Braam Steyn (Benetton Rugby).

Replacements: Luca Bigi (Benetton Rugby), Cherif Traoré (Benetton Rugby), Tiziano Pasquali (Benetton Rugby), David Sisi (Zebre), Alessandro Zanni (Benetton Rugby), Guglielmo Palazzani (Zebre), Ian McKinley (Benetton Rugby), Tommaso Castello (Zebre).

IRELAND: Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster); Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster), Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht), Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster), Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht), Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) (capt), Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster), Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster).

Replacements: Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster), Jack McGrath (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Iain Henderson (Queen’s University/Ulster), Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster), John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster), Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht), Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster).

Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Barnes, Karl Dickson (both England)
Television Match Official: Graham Hughes (England)

Match Odds (Paddy Power): Italy to win: 19/1; Draw: 70/1; Ireland to win: 1/50

Pre-Match Quotes: Peter O’Mahony (Ireland) – “It’s hugely special, an incredible honour. I’ve been lucky enough to captain the team a couple of times before when the other lads were out, but to get a chance to captain the team in the Six Nations, it’s an incredible competition, one of the best in the world.

“It’s not about personal milestones, but it’s certainly special for me to be asked to lead the lads out tomorrow. It doesn’t change my week or what I do, to be honest. But it’s nice to be asked. There’s an incredible amount of history gone with Irish captains. And it’s a huge honour to play in itself, but being captain is just extra special.

“It’s a little bit of a different animal nowadays.  It doesn’t change my week. Teams would’ve been very dependent on a certain amount of guys. We’ve built a huge leadership group now. We’re depending on large chunks of the squad to lead and that’s something we’ve built over the last two or three years.

“I remember doing media after that game (the defeat to Italy in Rome in 2013), I got a shiver down my spine. You just don’t like losing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in Rome or at home. There’s big days out there when you win things, but it’s funny, the days you lose are the days that stand out at times.

“It shouldn’t be the way, but that’s how it is. We’ll be looking for a big performance tomorrow. We understand how difficult it is every time you come to Rome, we know the physicality required. Tomorrow it’s going to start from the first minute and it’s going to be about going to the very last one. So it’s all about preparing for that.”

Leonardo Ghiraldini (Italy) – “I don’t think so, for us it (the personnel changes made by Ireland) doesn’t change a lot for us. The captain Rory Best might be missing, but Sean Cronin is playing, he has 67 caps, he plays for Leinster. He won everything last season. So it doesn’t change the quality of the team.

“I was playing with Treviso at the time of that game in 2013 when Italy beat Ireland and the results the club were having then are pretty similar to what they are doing this year. There are about 13 or 14 players in the squad and it is also the same now (with Benetton Rugby). So there are similarities.

“It’s important that the players have that confidence to win week in and week out. Obviously they hope to translate that to the national team and Ireland have always been able to do that in recent years with Munster and Leinster. It’s a completely different level, though, when trying to translate performances from club level to the national team.

“When they beat Ireland, England were amazing at the breakdown, the physicality. They brought everything. If you want to win a match at that level, you have to win the battle at every breakdown, in every tackle, in every collision.

“Mentally England were amazing against Ireland because they put pressure on them at every moment. So we have to play our rugby. We know we’re playing one of the best teams in the world. They are really well organised and it seems they change their plan every week. So our goal is to play our rugby.”

Pre-Match Links –

Head-To-Head: Ireland v Italy

Irish Rugby TV: Aki Feels ‘Privileged’ To Be In Ireland Squad

Irish Rugby TV: Ireland v Italy Team Announcement Press Conference

In Pics: Ireland Captain’s Run At Stadio Olimpico In Rome

Irish Rugby TV: Easterby Wary Of Italian Back Row Threat

Irish Rugby TV: O’Mahony Honoured To Lead Ireland

Recent Meetings –

2016: RBS 6 Nations: Ireland 58 Italy 15, Aviva Stadium

2017: RBS 6 Nations: Italy 10 Ireland 63, Stadio Olimpico

2018: NatWest 6 Nations: Ireland 56 Italy 19, Aviva Stadium; The Rugby Weekend Test: Ireland 54 Italy 7, Soldier Field, Chicago

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