IRELAND CAPTAIN CIARA Griffin says her side is “chomping at the bit” ahead of their Six Nations third/fourth-place playoff at Donnybrook tomorrow, as they look to recover from the hurt of their 41-point defeat to France.
The hosts will take on Italy in what will also be a dress rehearsal for their meeting in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Italy was the original destination for the fixture, but it was subsequently switched to Dublin on account of Ireland’s Covid-19 quarantine restrictions. That change was announced on Wednesday while the players were informed “earlier than that” according to Griffin.
Ireland have three changes in the side that will take to the field in Energia Park for the 12pm kick-off, with Brittany Hogan, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Stacey Flood all stepping into the fray.
Concluding their Six Nations championship with a win, Griffin says, is the key goal for Ireland.
“It’s massive. We want to play games, that’s the end goal. Every chance you play games, you want to do well and perform well. So, we want to finish strong and get a top-three finish. That has been our aim, that has been our target.
“So, nothing stops there, we’ve got a job to do and that’s to finish third and put in a good performance at home.
“We’ve a job at hand, France is done. That’s what we’re focusing on here. There’s a very good mood in camp. People are chomping at the bit to put in a good performance this weekend, try and right some wrongs from last week.”
Ireland defeated Italy in what was supposed to be the penultimate game of their Six Nations tournament last October. A final outing against France was to follow before the Covid-19 pandemic forced a cancellation.
That 21-7 victory over the Azzurri was an impressive victory for Adam Griggs’ side but Griffin is expecting a tougher assignment when the sides meet this time around.
Italy were beaten heavily by England in their opening Six Nations game this year but recovered with an excellent display and a resounding victory against Soctland last weekend.
“You can see that they’ve improved massively from when we played them in October and we can see that. But we’ve a job to do at the weekend. We have our homework done. They played well against England and had a strong game against Scotland.”
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