Ireland gave Italy an absolute thumping in the penultimate round of the 2016 Six Nations tournament, recording a 43-point win over the visiting side.
Final score
Ireland 58
Italy 15
Ireland will be keen to give their fans something to cheer about when they host struggling Italy in Dublin. Join The Roar for live scores from 1:00am AEDT.
Having already suffered two defeats and a draw to France, England and Wales respectively, it’s fair to say that Ireland’s Six Nations defence has been a dour campaign.
To be fair, Ireland have faced the cream of the northern hemisphere in all their matches thus far and have competed well and because of this start very strong favourites against the Italians this afternoon.
Italy remain winless in the tournament and continue to remain stagnant after all these years in the Six Nations. It seems the regular competition against strong opposition has done little to improve their play and results against the best teams in world rugby.
While Italy can’t be faulted for the effort they produce, they simply lack the attacking chemistry and advanced interplay between the forwards, halves and backs required to take the next step in their rugby evolution.
Italy are no strangers to pushing the best teams as evidenced by their narrow defeats to France and Ireland at this year’s Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup last year.
With that said, the Azurri struggle immensely to produce victories on a consistent basis and one doesn’t see their record improving today against Ireland.
While the Italians did score an upset win over Ireland in 2013 away from home, it would be very surprising to see a similar result today against an Irish team eager to secure their first win of the campaign.
Prediction: Ireland by 14.
Join The Roar for live scores from 1:00am AEDT.
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