Farrell makes late calls on Keenan, Nash and O’Mahony

Garry Ringrose, who missed the trip to France with a shoulder injury, will also be assessed.

Calvin Nash at the IRFU High Performance Centre, 

Ireland are expecting an improved Italy when Gonzalo Quesada’s team pitch up at the Aviva Stadium for Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations clash.

Ireland will go into the round-two encounter as hot favourites to continue where they left off in Marseille last Friday night, with a five-try, bonus-point 38-17 victory over France that exceeded expectations following the hammer blow of a World Cup quarter-final exit the previous October.

Yet Italy’s new head coach, the former Argentina fly-half, in his first game since succeeding Kieran Crowley after last autumn’s disastrous World Cup campaign, presided over an uplift in performance levels last Saturday in Rome.

Although it was still not enough to score a first victory over England. Yet the Azzurri showed enough in their 27-24 defeat at Stadio Olimpico for Ireland attack coach Mike Catt to be wary of the threat they could pose to the defending champions in Dublin this weekend.

“I think they’ve definitely put a little bit more time into their set-piece and their starter plays,” Catt said. “They targeted (England fly-half) George Ford nicely and then shot down that short side. They had some really good stuff and with a little bit better execution I think they would have been away with it.

“But it’s their phase stuff, their ability to get into their phase shape and hurt teams. The nice thing is they’ll keep progressing, they’re a week older as a group with the new coach so we expect them to be better than they were against England.” 

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is set to name his team to face the Italians at 2pm today with late calls expected on the availability of Marseille starters, Hugo Keenan, Calvin Nash and captain Peter O’Mahony, each of whom sustained minor knocks, and Garry Ringrose, who missed the trip to France with a shoulder injury.

If Ringrose does pass fit he will have to break up last Friday’s highly effective centre partnership of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw and Catt praised the former’s skill set at inside centre, which has gone to another level since last year’s Six Nations and earned him a World Rugby player of the year nomination for 2023 following an outstanding World Cup campaign.

“I think it’s a combination of everything,” Catt said of Aki. “He’s got the physical presence, he fully understands…..I think where he’s really developed is his ability to make the right decisions with the ball in hand too. He has lovely soft hands and how he makes other people around him feel too.

“But when you’ve got the likes of Hugo, Jemo (scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park), these sort of guys, that are doing what Bundee’s doing, he’s just bringing his part of the game, and people thrive off it. Yeah, he’s fitted in well and he’s fitting in well, so long may it continue.”