Women’s Six Nations: Ireland v Italy, Dexcom Stadium, Saturday, 5.40pm – Live on Virgin Media One & BBC iPlayer
The historic occasions keep coming for this Ireland team. Last week it was a record crowd at Twickenham, and this week they host a women’s international in Galway for the first time and will do so in front of the biggest ever home crowd.
With the forecast set to be fair, 9,500 tickets have been sold as of Friday, eclipsing last season’s landmark attendance of 7,500 at Musgrave Park. This includes all of the 8,000 seats in the new Clan Stand and the eventual attendance should come close to filling the 10,500 or so set capacity.
Expectations have risen after successive third-place finishes with two wins in each of the last two Six Nations, as well as last year’s World Cup quarter-final, and Ireland will be targeting a minimum of three home wins this season. Starting here.
While it’s a different mental challenge, and there is a need to manage the occasion, it should inspire the home side, who should also benefit from last week’s first hit-out in six months. There were costly set-piece malfunctions and too many unforced errors, as well as playing a little too deeply at times and an over-used, unexceptional kicking game.
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But there should be improvements in all these aspects of Ireland’s game here. And even last Saturday’s 33-12 defeat showed progress on previous seasons, having lost 45-9 and 88-10 in the last two Six Nations.
Ireland also scored two tries at Twickenham, their first time to do so against England since 2013. And it was particularly significant that newly-installed captain Erin King scored the second in lasting the 80 minutes so strongly.
Head coach Scott Bemand has made three changes, bringing in centre Nancy McGillivray and debutant winger Robyn O’Connor, while restoring Ruth Campbell to the secondrow, as well as the return of Sam Monaghan on the bench.
Similarly, Italy will expect to improve upon their opening-round defeat to France, having dominated the first half-hour territorially to trail 5-0 at the break before being blitzed in the second-half to finish 40-5. Fabio Roselli has made five changes, giving winger Gaia Buso makes her first Six Nations start and a full debut to prop Elettra Costantini, while restoring loose head Gaia Maris and halfbacks Sofia Stefan and Emma Stevanin.
Stefan scored the try of the year in Italy’s home win over Ireland in 2023, which they followed up with at win at the RDS the following season, but Ireland got a record 54-12 away last year.
But Ireland were helped to that win by a first-minute yellow card for Ireland and 14-points inside the opening eight minutes. This time around, Bemand believes the Italians will be a much-improved side.
“They’re a well-coached group. You can see they have a plan and they go about understanding their plan. It wasn’t that long ago that the Italians maybe played in a slightly more chaotic way.
“But rugby over there is probably shown by the men’s side, isn’t it? It’s improving across the board and we also know about a rising tide floating boats. And it looks like the Italian women are more organised, understand the plan and what they’re trying to do.
“They take some breaking down. I’ve played against the Italians now in one capacity or another for the last 10 or 11 years. They usually take some breaking down.
“We know there’s going to be a process to go through, but we’ve got to earn the right to score tries. Last year, we got opportunities and we were able to be quite clinical when we got those opportunities. I remember Eve (Higgins) having a keen eye for a gap, she’s going to come on and have a massive impact on this game for us.
“If it’s a close game, we’ve got to earn the right to score tries. We believe we’ve picked the squad in the right manner that we’re going to be able to take the game away from the Italians.
“It’s not [about] just turning up and expecting it to happen, we’ve got to get our physicality, our execution correct to get to that point. And we were able to show that last year.
“I want us to go in with confidence, but we’re going to have to understand that we’ve got to earn the right to get to that point.”
Anything less than a bonus point win will be seen as a disappointment but patience will likely be a virtue compared to last season’s meeting.
IRELAND: Stacey Flood; Béibhinn Parsons, Aoife Dalton, Nancy McGillivray, Robyn O’Connor; Dannah O’Brien, Emily Lane; Ellena Perry, Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald, Linda Djougang; Ruth Campbell, Fiona Tuite; Brittany Hogan, Erin King (capt), Aoife Wafer. Replacements: Neve Jones, Niamh O’Dowd, Sadhbh McGrath, Dorothy Wall, Sam Monaghan, Katie Whelan, Eve Higgins, Anna McGann.
ITALY: Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi; Gaia Buso, Alyssa D’Incà, Sara Mannini, Aura Muzzo; Emma Stevanin, Sofia Stefan; Gaia Maris, Vittoria Vecchini, Alessia Pilani; Valeria Fedrighi, Elettra Costantin; Francesca Sgorbini, Alissa Ranuccini, Elisa Giordano (capt). Replacements: Chiara Cheli, Silvia Turani, Vittoria Zanette, Giordana Duca, Beatrice Veronese, Alia Bitonci, Veronica Madia, Michela Sillari.
Referee: E Goldsmith (AUS).
Overall head-to-head: Played 24, Ireland 20 wins, Italy 4 wins.
Forecast: Ireland to win.
