Parisse relishing captain’s role

ITALY captain Sergio Parisse insists he is more than ready to assume his new responsibilities as he prepares for this afternoon’s RBS 6 Nations Championship opener at Dublin’s Croke Park.

The Stade Francais number eight will skipper his national team for the first time at Croke Park.

And although the 24-year-old admits he has no idea what he will say to his players, he believes he can lead the fight on the field against an Ireland team he knows will try anything within the rules.

“I really don’t know what I will tell them,” Parisse said yesterday.

“I will come out with what I feel inside of me. I have heard a lot of team talks and many have touched me.

“I only have to speak from my emotions, from the heart, I don’t have the intention of preparing anything.

“Last year they tripped us up. It was a mistake that neither I nor my team-mates can afford to repeat.

“On my part I will respond to their provocation with a tough exterior, I am the captain and I won’t forget it.

“(Brian) O’Driscoll, (Ronan) O’Gara and (Peter) Stringer are experts who try to put you in difficulty whatever way possible. We are aware of that.”

Italy shocked everyone in their championship opener at Lansdowne Road two years ago where a controversial decision in the hosts’ favour denied the Azzurri a memorable victory.

And the last time the two met Irish luck held out as Eddie O’Sullivan’s men eventually edged the clash 23-20.

But Parisse believes that despite pitting the untried half-back partnership of Pietro Travagli and Andrea Masi against Stringer and O’Gara — who have played 70 games together — the Azzurri will win.

“We know the Irish and they know us,” Parisse continued. “We came within touching distance of victory twice against them.

“The squad will have faith in Andrea Masi and Pietro Travagli, we have all known each other since the youth team and they have grown together.

“I am not worried, I know that they would give their soul for the shirt.”

Italy were hit by a late withdrawal when Gloucester prop Carlos Nieto flew home to Argentina following the death of his father.

New Italy coach Nick Mallett has called up Calvisano’s Lorenzo Cittadini, who could earn his first cap for the Azzurri this weekend.

But despite the Six Nations heralding a time of change for Italy, Parisse believes there is still the a core group of players who are out to show they can do better than their disappointing World Cup.

He added: “We are a good squad. And even if we have just started on a new cycle, the backbone of the team is the same that it’s been for three years.

“In this Six Nations we want to prove first of all to ourselves that we are not the same side we saw at the World Cup and I am sure that we will take from it some satisfaction.”