O’Sullivan: elements are our main threat
These gentlemen rarely get it wrong and to be honest, it will come as something of a disappointment to Irish fans if the conquerors of the world champions fail to put a big score on Italy at Lansdowne Road this afternoon.
To be fair, Italy aren't the pushover they were in the early years of their participation in the Six Nations and should be treated with a degree of respect.
Furthermore, it was a cold, showery and above all a very windy day in Dublin yesterday and the forecast is for much of the same today.
Those are conditions not suited to the style of a modern-day Irish rugby side. You could also hold out some hope for the Azzurri because of yesterday's withdrawal from the Irish pack of the hugely influential Paul O'Connell because of bruised ribs he picked up against England two weeks ago.
At the end of the day, however, you come up with just one logical conclusion anything other than a convincing victory for Eddie O'Sullivan's side would come as a major shock.
The fact is that England put 50 points on Italy. Ireland went to Twickenham and beat England. It's difficult to argue with that kind of logic.
As for the weather, Irish players are well accustomed to dealing with whatever is thrown at them and this time should be no different.
And while O'Connell would be a huge loss to any team, Ireland are exceedingly fortunate to have a forward of Donnacha O'Callaghan's stature as a replacement, a point forcibly acknowledged by the coach.
Everything points to a comfortable win and I suspect Irish fans won't settle for anything less. Nevertheless, O'Sullivan cannot be blamed for playing down as much as possible the sense of expectation and yesterday heaped praise on John Kirwan's side while expressing his fears about the potential impact of the elements.
"It's like a wind tunnel out there at the moment", he commented. "I don't know how we're going to kick if it stays like that. It will be extremely testing and even running with the ball is a high risk strategy.
"Of course, it will be the same for both teams but it just makes it difficult to play the kind of rugby we're trying to play at the moment and if we got rain along with that it could become almost impossible.
"I've never seen the Italians as whipping boys and anybody taking that view would be very foolish. They were convincing winners over Scotland. It was their second win over the Scots and they turned Wales over last year. So they're certainly a team to be reckoned with.
"John Kirwan, their coach, targeted two wins this year, one at home which they've got, and an away win against us.
"We've spent the week planning our strategy to beat them, so this week has been no different from the way we prepared for France, Wales and England. Gone are the days when Italy are a soft touch in the Six Nations."
Pointing out that Italy are a young side and very aggressive, O'Sullivan was very much on the right lines when he referred to how unlucky they were to leak 50 points against England.
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