Ireland seek last eight spot with Parisse in the way
By Padraic Halpin
LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland will seek to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals with a match to spare and continue their seamless progress to a group decider against France with victory over an Italy side boosted by the return of captain Sergio Parisse.
Eased into the tournament with routine victories over Canada and Romania, the Italians will present Joe Schmidt's Six Nations champions with their first test of the competition on Sunday, regardless of the Azzuri's own patchy form thus far.
A single victory over Canada means Italy, who have beaten Ireland just once in 16 Six Nations attempts, must win to stay in the tournament and keep their feint hopes of a first World Cup quarter-final alive.
"We know what we produced in the last couple of weeks probably won't be good enough against Italy and we have to go back to the warm-up games and take bits of those games," Ireland flyhalf Johnny Sexton told a news conference on Friday.
"They (Italy) will be the best they've been in the competition so it's a big challenge for us."
Even against limited opposition, Ireland have looked sharp, securing bonus-point wins and conceding fewer points so far than any other team except Australia thanks to a strangling defence that secured two consecutive Six Nations titles.
Sexton, rested last time out against Romania, will look to take up where he confidently left off in 60 minutes against Canada, while centre Robbie Henshaw gets his first run after missing the opening games with a tight hamstring.
Rob Kearney and Jared Payne miss out through minor injury, but Schmidt has an ample supply of in-form players to back up.
No top tier term relies on a single player as much as Italy lean on Parrise, the talismanic number eight who will make his 111th test start on Sunday. Only Brian O'Driscoll, Richie McCaw, George Gregan and Victor Matfield have started more games.
In his absence Italy were subdued against France, snuck past Canada and make five changes for Sunday. Schmidt expects his opponents to more closely resemble the side that lost narrowly to Wales in the warm-up games, particularly with Parrise back.
"I think we all know what value he adds to a team, not just as an individual athletic player and a top drawer competitor but also as a leader and as a talisman," Schmidt said.
Teams:
Ireland: 1-Jack McGrath, 2-Rory Best, 3-Mike Ross, 4-Iain Henderson, 5-Paul O'Connell, 6-Peter O'Mahony, 7-Sean O'Brien, 8-Jamie Heaslip; 9-Conor Murray, 10-Jonathan Sexton, 11-Dave Kearney, 12-Robbie Henshaw, 13-Keith Earls, 14-Tommy Bowe, 15-Simon Zebo
Replacements: 16-Sean Cronin, 17-Cian Healy, 18-Nathan White, 19-Devin Toner, 20-Chris Henry, 21-Eoin Reddan, 22-Ian Madigan 23-Luke Fitzgerald
Italy: 1-Matias Aguero, 2-Andrea Manici, 3-Lorenzo Cittadini, 4-Ouintin Geldenhuys, 5-Josh Furno, 6-Francesco Minto, 7-Simone Favaro, 8-Sergio Parisse (captain); 9-Edoardo Gori, 10-Tommaso Allan, 11-Giovanbattista Venditti, 12-Gonzalo Garcia, 13-Michele Capagnaro, 14-Leonardo Sarto, 15-Luke McLean.
Replacements: 16-Davide Giazzon, 17-Michele Rizzo, 18-Dario Chistolini, 19-Alessandro Zanni, 20-Mauro Bergamasco, 21-Guglielmo Palazzani, 22-Carlo Canna, 23-Tommaso Benvenuti.
Referee: Jerome Garces (France)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Justin Palmer)
