{"id":287548,"date":"2026-02-08T16:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/287548\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:46:08","slug":"italy-prepare-for-dublin-with-increased-belief-they-can-beat-a-deflated-ireland-side-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/287548\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy prepare for Dublin with increased belief they can beat a deflated Ireland side \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whereas Irish<\/a> rugby is reeling from one of its most deflating weeks in many a year, the Italian<\/a> rugby squad travel to Dublin with increased belief that they can claim a first Six Nations<\/a> away win over Ireland in the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 2.10pm). <\/p>\n

This follows their gritty and deserved 18-15 win over Scotland<\/a> in a rain-sodden Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, which was the first time the Azzurri have recorded successive home wins over the same opponents in their 27 years in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel very confident in what you can do,\u201d captain Michele Lamaro said in his post-match interview. \u201cSo now we\u2019ve got a dream in our head. We keep going on.\u201d When pressed on what that dream entails, Lamara smiled and said: \u201cIt\u2019s going to stay in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt that includes a first win in Ireland since their victory at the old Lansdowne Road in 1997. They\u2019ve lost on their last 18 treks here, including all 13 visits to the Aviva Stadium in the Six Nations. To add to their dreams, none of Saturday\u2019s matchday 23 in Rome were involved when Italy last beat Ireland in the last round of the 2013 Six Nations by 22-15 at the Stadio Olimpico.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you win, you can never get too carried away,\u201d Lamaro did caution after their victory over Scotland. \u201cIt\u2019s often easy to play a very intense first match, but then you have to confirm your form the following week. And seeing how Ireland approached the match against France, we know they\u2019re preparing for a very tough match against us, and if we\u2019re not prepared, the game in Dublin could be a very long afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis performance should make us understand that when we use the weapons we have, we can hurt a lot of teams. Scotland came here with a great team, and we managed to beat them in a storm that they\u2019re certainly more accustomed to, and that\u2019s a source of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada is hoping to profit from the boost to his team\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to raise expectations, to make calculations, to think about future results. This happens when you sense that great results are possible, but we know where we still need to improve and we must keep our feet on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland were hard-pressed to beat Italy by 22-17 in Rome in the final round of last season\u2019s championship when indebted to Joe McCarthy\u2019s covering tackle which prevented Leonardo Marin from scoring and thus setting up a conversion to win the match for Paolo Garbisi.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Cian Prendergast and Sam Prendergast stand for the national anthem. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The Irish team had travelled to Rome scarred by the previous week\u2019s loss to France at home, and once again they have been bruised by another emphatic defeat when losing 36-14 in Paris last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Cian Prendergast<\/a> echoed Andy Farrell\u2019s<\/a> sentiments that the players would be honest with each other when the squad assembled on Sunday night as a means of triggering a positive response against Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I\u2019ve been watching there has never been any doubt about the character of an Irish team. So, I guarantee you we\u2019ll show up now on Sunday to camp, we\u2019ll review the game, we\u2019ll be honest with each other and we\u2019ll go to work and get ready to put on a performance next Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when Italy were the whipping boys of the Six Nations, as when suffering whitewashes for six consecutive championships from 2016 to 2021. They\u2019ve only lost four of their last nine games in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played Italy before, they\u2019ve got brilliant players playing in the Top 14 and in the URC,\u201d said Prendergast. \u201cThey are physical, so it\u2019s another challenge and we will just have to get ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A quartet of Irish players made their Six Nations debuts last Thursday, and on a landmark night for them, it was also the first time Prendergast started alongside his younger brother Sam in any game of rugby, having previously done so as a replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always special when we get to play together. We had family here at the game but ultimately we don\u2019t really like making it about ourselves during the week. We\u2019re just focused on putting on a performance for Ireland and we\u2019re just disappointed we didn\u2019t get to do it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elder brother confirmed it was their \u201cfirst start in any kind of game together\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe some underage Gaelic football, but I don\u2019t even think we\u2019ve started together in those games. It was cool and something we\u2019ll definitely look back on in a few years, but it\u2019s just disappointing we didn\u2019t get the result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whereas Irish rugby is reeling from one of its most deflating weeks in many a year, the Italian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128727,61,60,1449,132479,43,15551],"class_list":["post-287548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cian-prendergast","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-italy-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}