DESPITE IRELAND’S POSITION at the top of the Six Nations table, Italy coach Jacques Brunel reckons his team can defeat the Irish tomorrow.
Italy are bottom in the Six Nations standings with three defeats from as many games but having claimed a maiden win over Ireland last year in Rome, Brunel claimed his side should head to Dublin with confidence.
While the 60-year-old French coach knows Ireland are in significantly better form in 2014, he remained bullish about Italy’s chances at the Aviva Stadium.
“Ireland is certainly a better squad than last year,” Brunel said on Thursday. ”But we have to remember that we beat them barely a year ago in Rome and in a rather convincing fashion. We have the chance to do so again.”
Brunel made five changes to his line-up to take on Ireland with regular captain Sergio Parisse (calf injury) among those left out.
Italy will start a new pairing in the halves with Luciano Orquera and Tito Tebaldi replacing fly-half Tommaso Allan and scrum-half Edoardo Gori respectively.
“With five players unavailable we had to adapt ourselves,” Brunel said.
“Among the half-backs we wanted to give a chance to those who had played less like (Luciano) Orquera, also because against Scotland we didn’t manage the pressure well in our half.
“I wanted to integrate (Tito) Tebaldi into the group before the tournament but he had a slight injury and we couldn’t select him.”
