Match Preview – Ireland vs Italy

In a special attraction at Chicago’s Soldiers Field Six Nations rivals Ireland and Italy meet in a test match on Saturday. It is a rare fixture between the countries falling outside of the annual Six Nations Championship.

Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt has not taken his leading lineup across the Atlantic Ocean. Many of Ireland’s best instead remain at home waiting to feature in the home internationals which start on Saturday November 10 against Argentina in Dublin.

Of the missing is Johnny Sexton. This sees his former Leinster teammate Joey Carbery named at fly half to face Italy. He will play outside Canadian-born Luke McGrath in the halves while New Zealander Bundee Aki is to partner Garry Ringrose in the mid-field.

Ireland will be led by Rhys Ruddock from flanker. He leads a pack made up of Irish fringe players while outside Schmidt has handed Jordon Larmour a first test start and Andrew Conway and Jacob Stockdale joining him in the back-three.

Italian Head Coach Conor O’Shea has gone for 13 changes from Italy’s last test match. The Azzurri’s prior outing was a 25-22 victory against Japan in Kobe in June.

From the win in Kobe only Michele Campagnaro and Tiziano Pasquali remain. Campagnaro is to captain the Italians in place of Sergio Parisse who is unavailable due to the date of the match falling outside of the International Window.

Italy will add to their project players in the match. The latest will be South African Johan Meyer who is set to make his debut at flanker. Fellow South African Braam Steyn will play on the other side of the scrum.

One of Italy’s most promising fly halves since Diego Dominguez, Carlo Canna will start outside Tito Tebaldi. His replacement is to be Ian McKinley, a former Irish u20s representative.

Saturday will mark the third occasion in which Ireland and Italy have faced-off on neutral territory. It is to be the 29th fixture overall with Ireland hosting 15 and Italy 11 prior matches.

The head-to-head record has Ireland with 24 wins and Italy 4. Ireland has won the past six matches with the closest seeing the Irish winning 16-9 in London, England during RWC 2015. An additional win is expected by Ireland in Chicago on Saturday. Ireland are favorites to win by 15 or more points.

IRELAND
15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Rhys Ruddock (capt.), 5 Quinn Roux, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jack McGrath

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 John Cooney, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Will Addison

ITALY
15 Luca Sperandio, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Michele Campagnaro (capt.), 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Giulio Bisegni, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Renato Giammarioli, 7 Braam Steyn, 6 Johan Meyer, 5 George Biagi, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Nicola Quaglio

Replacements: 16 Oliviero Fabiani, 17 Cherif Traore, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Marco Lazzaroni, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Jimmy Tuivaiti, 22 Guglielmo Palazzani, 23 Ian McKinley

Date: Saturday, November 3
Venue: Soldier Field, Chicago
Kick-off: 15:00 local (13:00 PT, 16:00 ET, 20:00 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistants: Romain Poite (France) & Alexandre Ruiz (France)
TMO: Dave Ardrey (USA)
Broadcasts: FloRugby