THE CENTRE PARTNERSHIP of Stuart McCloskey and Garry Ringrose is one of the few combinations in the Ireland team which remains unbroken from last week’s loss in France to this weekend’s home clash with Italy.

In other areas, Andy Farrell has shaken things up. There are two new faces in the back three, one in the half-backs, one in the second row and two in the back row – along with a positional switch for Caelan Doris.

Yet the front row trio of Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan and Thomas Clarkson remains unchanged, as does the centre pairing of McCloskey and Ringrose.

The duo didn’t give their strongest showing in Paris. Ringrose was notably quiet and while McCloskey looked one of Ireland’s more threatening ball-carriers, his influence was limited amid a general team malfunction. 

Whether that team performance is just a disappointing start to the championship or the worrying continuation of the problems evident last year remains to be seen. McCloskey, for his part, says he is confident Ireland can hit their stride over the coming weeks.

“I think we’re trying to evolve,” he says.

McCloskey partners Garry Ringrose again this weekend. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“And when any team tries to evolve, there’s obviously a bit of teething problems. I don’t think it was so much the attack, rather than more dropped balls. I think we maybe had about nine knock-ons.

“I know the weather was greasy, but they made it look fairly simple at times. So I think it’s hard to get into your attack and really get any flow when there’s a lot of disjointed dropped balls.

“Set piece went well, we had ball there. We didn’t really get any balls back in the aerial game, which is what we sort of targeted early. And they did really well there, to be fair to them. I think we thought we could get after them, all three back-three for them did a great job. We had to adapt and probably left it a wee bit too late to adapt.”

While France looked scintillating, Ireland looked a little lost, failing to get any real gains as their kicking game struggled to reap rewards.

“I think we’ve got a pretty clear identity of what we’re trying to do,” McCloskey continues.

I don’t think we saw it the weekend at all, but I’d like to think you still see the shapes that we’re well known for over the last few years with the forwards getting a lot of ball in their hands and playing those out balls late at the line.

“But I think (against France), it was just handling errors more that led to probably looking pretty disjointed and not on the same page. Hopefully we’ll crack that this week and it’ll look a lot better this weekend.”

McCloskey wins cap number 25, looking to build on a strong run of form at international level over recent seasons. Now 33, the Ulster man feels the clear first choice at 12 – even allowing for Bundee Aki’s current suspension.

That said, it’s still lining up to be a big couple of weeks for McCloskey. Italy will come to Dublin looking to upset an Irish side who looked some way off the pace in Paris, and after that, it’s a trip to take on England in Twickenham. At this stage of his career, McCloskey is comfortable in where he sits in the bigger picture.

“I’d like to think I’m fairly confident anyway. I don’t know if it’s my jersey or not but just the amount of time I’ve been here, competing with Robbie (Henshaw) and Bundee for that jersey, probably the guts of the last six or seven years.

“And at my age now, if you’re not confident in what you do, you probably shouldn’t be here. So yes, I’m fairly confident. I’d like to think I’m a confident player anyway. I’ll just try and take that into the games.”

It’s a massive weekend for Ireland as they look to get their championship back on track. Italy have a poor record in Dublin, but ran Ireland close in Rome last year and were full value for their win over Scotland on the opening weekend.

“They’ve got so much better, and they have been doing that for the last few years, like beating Scotland at the weekend.”

The centre wins cap number 25 tomorrow. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“For me, it’s the backs, (Nacho) Brex [unavailable this weekend] and (Tommaso) Menoncello; played against them a few times now. It’s always been a good contest, but they’re probably the heartbeat of the team.

“(Paolo) Garbisi, I think all these guys are pretty hot when you let them be on the day. So try and get in their faces, try to disrupt their game. Don’t give them that flow that their backs are looking for. And yet they still have that physicality, but hopefully we can be just as physical, if not more.”

With Brex unavailable this weekend and the injured Ange Capuozzo also missing out, there’s a greater onus on McCloskey’s opposite number, Menoncello, in the Italy backline.

“I’ll tell you what you all probably already know, but he’s got that X-factor, his pace, he’s powerful. He’s got a pretty good offloading game. He breaks more tackles than most other centres as well.

“Brex sometimes doesn’t get all the plaudits, but I think he’s a lot to do with why Menoncello gets a lot of half-shoulders and is allowed to look as good as he is.

“Hopefully that’s disrupted a wee bit this week, but I think his X-factor is just physicality. He’s probably one of the most athletic centres in the world, if not the most athletic. So trying to get on top of him physically for me is probably priority one.”