Kiss backs Irish variety over Italian grunt

Rugby:Les Kiss insists Ireland have many more facets to their game than just their scrum following Italy's set-piece challenge.

Ireland's scrum has been praised for the way it has improved over the past 12 months, with Australia struggling to cope upfront during the shock 15-6 defeat in Auckland. However, Azzurri coach Nick Mallett to throw down the gauntlet to Ireland ahead of Sunday's crunch clash by claiming his side have the better front row.

Defence guru Kiss, though, insists the scrum is just element to Ireland's play.

"Coaches are always going to talk up what's good for them," said Kiss. "There's no doubt it, no mystery behind it - they've got a good scrum. But we'll back our guys as well, there's no doubt there.

"The scrum is one part of the game, it's very important and it's going to play its part at some stage. But we've got other parts in our game that we'll bring as well.

"There's a lot of discussion that will be around the scrum and it's no surprise Mallett is going to talk that up. But the scrum is just one part of it."

Italy set up the shootout for a place in the quarter-finals after securing a try-scoring bonus point in their 27-10 triumph over the United States on Tuesday.

"You've just got to give credit to the way the USA went about their business and they were the same with us. They were physical and up for the battle," said Kiss. "The end result was Italy won the game with four tries and that will always stand, so it's history now.

"The big thing for us is we've done our analysis on it, we know this is a massive battle and that there's a lot at stake.

"It's winner-takes-all and that's what it's about this weekend."