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Six Nations 2017: Italy vs Ireland Preview

Ireland's Garry Ringrose - not the next Brian O'Driscoll, but the original Garry Ringrose

Italy vs Ireland at Stadio Olimpico (Saturday, February 11, 10.25pm HKT)

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The opening match of the second weekend of the Six Nations sees Ireland looking to bounce back from a shock first-round defeat.

What we can expect 
Wales ramped up the power play last week against Italy, but it’s likely to be a very different match in Rome this week. Expect Ireland to get the ball to their jet-powered backs as soon as possible. We may even see the tournament’s first-ever attacking bonus point.

Italy 
The Azzurri conceded a criminal 16 penalties against Wales at a rain-sodden Stadio Olimpico last weekend – and while coach Conor O’Shea raged against referee JP Doyle’s interpretation of the breakdown, his players were not entirely blameless. It may go some way to explaining the four changes he’s made to the starting XV for Ireland’s visit, though Michele Campagnaro’s continuing bench-warming shift remains something of a mystery.

Matchday 23: Edoardo Padovani, Angelo Esposito, Tommaso Benvenuti, Luke McLean, Giovanbattista Venditti, Carlo Canna, Edoardo Gori, Andrea Lovotti, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Lorenzo Cittadini, Marco Fuser, Andries van Schalkwyk, Maxime Mata Mbanda, Simone Favaro, Sergio Parisse Replacements: Ornel Gega, Sami Panico, Dario Chistolini, George Biagi, Abraham Steyn, Giorgio Bronzini, Tommaso Allan, Michele Campagnaro.

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Ireland 
Given Paddy Jackson is playing so well, Joe Schmidt has sensibly refused to risk Johnny Sexton for what is a must-win match in Rome, preferring to keep him carefully wrapped in cotton wool until the third-round outing against France. Meanwhile, defence coach Andy Farrell was far from impressed with Ireland’s first-half defensive effort against Scotland last weekend. While he has remained diplomatic in public, insisting only that his charges needed to ‘fall in love’ with defending, it’s easy to imagine he was rather less polite behind closed dressing-room doors.

Matchday 23: Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Simon Zebo; Paddy Jackson, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Tadgh Furlong; Donnacha Ryan, Devin Toner; CJ Stander, Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip Replacements: Niall Scannell, Jack McGrath, John Ryan, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, Kieron Marmion, Ian Keatley, Craig Gilroy.

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All eyes on: Garry Ringrose
The Ireland 13 has been unfairly compared to Brian O’Driscoll in the press. He’s not the next Brian O’Driscoll. He’s the original Garry Ringrose – and there’s plenty for Irish fans to be excited about that. He may even be an outside shout for the Lions.

Key battle: The lineout
Italy replacement lock George Biagi has hinted that the Azzurri have a plan to deal with the lineout menace of Ireland’s towering Devin Toner … by trying to avoid all 6ft 11in of him completely. They will have been working on all kinds of throw-in chicanery to keep the Irish guessing and set themselves a platform – but it could get all kinds of messy.

Prediction
Rome, as the saying that is generally trotted out at times like this, wasn’t built in a day – nor can Conor O’Shea build a competitive Italian Six Nations’ team in a week. Ireland by 19.

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J
JW 36 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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