Flannery wary of Azzurri

Jerry Flannery believes Ireland are facing Italy at the worst possible time with their attritional style and reckons patience will be the key to victory in this weekend’s RBS 6 Nations opener.

Ireland launch their campaign to become only the sixth side to successfully defend the Grand Slam at Croke Park tomorrow.

On the surface, Italy appear the kindest possible start with the championship’s lowest ranked team overwhelming favourites to slump to a third successive wooden spoon.

But the green shoots of recovery were detected last autumn, when they ended a 13-match winless streak with a 24-6 victory over Samoa and produced creditable displays against New Zealand and South Africa.

Traditionally, according to Flannery, they pose the greatest threat in their first match and the Munster hooker insists any tries will have to be earnt the hard way.

“More than ever you expect a huge amount from Italy in their opening game of the season,” he said.

“In the past it’s been an easier match when it’s come later in the championship.

“They don’t have a massive player pool so if they lose a guy like Sergio Parisse (who will miss the tournament with a knee injury) or one of the Bergamasco brothers they miss them an awful lot.

“Their heads can then be down if they’ve lost a couple of games.

“But there was a lot of positive things for them in the autumn and they’ll be coming over looking for a scalp and will be full of beans.

“Italy are very confrontational and aggressive and work very hard.

“It’s a case of matching them and hoping the gaps open for our backs in the last 20 minutes, which has generally been the case.

“Sometimes you get panned with people saying it took until the 60th minute for Ireland to open up.

“But there’s a cumulative effect to playing such an attritional team. You keep at them and eventually the holes come.”

A key battleground will be the scrum – the only department where Italy have a decisive edge over the champions.

Ireland struggled in the set-piece during the autumn, particularly against South Africa, but Flannery insists there were mitigating circumstances.

And the 31-year-old, who will be winning his 35th cap tomorrow, believes a commanding performance against Italy will help silence criticism of the Irish scrum.

“We looked at the way we scrummaged in the autumn and weren’t happy with it,” he said.

“We were up against some of the best players in BJ Botha and Benn Robinson, the Australian loosehead, and they’re two of the best scrummagers around.

“We also had a relatively scratch front row with myself and John Hayes coming back from injury and not having had a lot of game time, while Cian Healy was winning his first and second caps.

“People give us a panning for our scrummaging but if we put in a good performance against this Italian side then the plaudits will be there.”

Once again Flannery will enter the Test arena woefully short of game time having played just one match for Shannon since November because of an Achilles injury.

With Rory Best – who has been fast-tracked onto the bench after recovering from neck surgery – providing cover, Ireland can ill-afford any casualties in the number two jersey.

Flannery, however, is convinced he will last the course.

“Being available for the first Six Nations game was very achievable with the injury I had, but what sort of state I’d be in was the question,” he said.

“I’m very confident because I don’t usually struggle for match fitness. Our squad sessions are intense and sharp, so that helps.

“Having 40 minutes with Shannon made me feel much more confident coming into this week with Ireland.”