RWC'15 Pool D: Ireland vs Italy, RWC. KO Sunday 4:45PM TV3/ITV1

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Preview. The board of the IRFU couldn't have asked for a better or luckier RWC than that of 2015. A soft group draw, a team who have been in devastating form in test matches, competition for places in almost every position within the squad and, best of all, most of our rival teams are floundering. So far so good for the Ireland team and with a severely underachieving Italian team opposing us on Sunday, you'd reasonably expect a safe 4 or even five points to see us through to the quarter final against one or either team from the other soft group of the tourney.

With that in mind lets have a look at how it could fall apart for us, as has been the case for everybody else in the competition.

The teams.

A largely expected starting 15 was announced today; Zebo's call up into full back in lieu of injured Kearney R is deserved after his excellent attacking against Romania while RWC debutant Robert Henshaw's return to the centre beside Keith Earls being the two notable if expected changes. Ian Henderson's fine form sees him retain his place over Devin Toner but we can expect the Leinster lock to make an impact when he comes on. Otherwise the bench is made up of forwards who could start and backs who should start, depending on who's asking whom.

Italy on the other hand have had their team selection made easier through a dearth of form, team spirit and potency in attack. Injured captain Sergio Parisse is called up after a week of medical treatment. While his return is a massive boost for Azzurri, front row stalwarts Leonardo Ghiraldini and Castrogiavanni don't feature in the 23 due to injuries; one wonders if the latter will ever see RWC action again. Behind the pack a conservative if solid five eights line failed to shine against Canada; surely they can't be as poor this week opposition not withstanding.

The Action. Italy has relied on 3 main weapons. Grinding down their opposition pack in the tight set piece, exploiting weaknesses on the day and old fashioned bullying and dirt-birding. This worked fine in 2003 when Clohessy or Jason Leonard would swing digs back at you and give the game to you or when Arwel Thomas or ROG were relatively light if savvy playmakers but today's game has moved on.

Players are bigger and fitter and smarter, set piece options are so numerous that it's nigh impossible to call bluff on them while the advent of TMO has worked wonders in cleaning up on foul play. Add to this that Italy needs a few modern backs and it's clear where their problems lay. Italy rugby is still stuck in 2003 test rugby and Ireland knows this well.

Low number ruck ball, wide flat runs, switches to the full back line runners and plenty of long kicks into space to turn them out will be the order of the day. McClean is an excellent full back but his mobility will be tested as will his field and return game. Most of this isn't pretty to watch (Unless you watch England play.) but it works and it will tire the opposition out in time.

The Verdict.. Ireland's games versus Canada and Romania were more like additional warm up games than actuate tests and were treated as such by management. While it has allowed for many on field combinations to be tried, it's also means that the team remains untested to a higher level since March.

On the other hand Italy have had such a test and have played poorly. Morale was clearly poor in the early season and Brunel has lost the plot at this late stage in his reign as head coach. Canada were no doubted hyped up last week to give it a lash but Italy were more lazy than poor and were saved by the good scrummaging of Castrogiavanni late on. Certainly they are due a big game one of the days and while they'll make us work I just don't think that this weekend is when they'll find the big game.

I'm going with a 39-20 win to Ireland, Zebo to put the shudders up his detractors and O'Leary to score the winning penalty :pac: