Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt is expecting Italy to provide a stiffer challenge in this year's Six Nations with key players available for the Azzurri again.
Ireland beat Italy 46-7 in Dublin last March en route to winning the Championship, but the opening game of this year's tournament in Rome will be much tougher, Schmidt told Off The Ball's Dave McIntyre today.
"I'm expecting Sergio Parisse to be the extra-ordinarily good player that he always is and Sergio didn't play against us last year. Nor did Alessandro Zanni, nor did Castrogiovanni after about seven or eight minutes when he came off very early in the game. Behind that Edoardo Gori has been in exceptionally good form and they have now got Kelly Haimona at 10," said the former Leinster head coach.
"There's a lot of change to what we saw last year, plus they're an entirely different team playing at home. They're in a new stadium. It's apparently going to be very full. That's going to be a huge challenge first off for us."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
