RTÉ Sport’s Gary Moran and Wes Liddy are joined by former Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman to look back at Ireland’s win over Romania and to preview the upcoming clash with Italy.
Ireland enjoyed a facile 44-10 win against Romania in front of a record-breaking crowd at Wembley, and now look forward to a clash with a slightly under-performing Italy side.
Former Connacht and Leinster player Jackman said Ireland coach Joe Schmidt made a lot of changes to the team for Sunday's meeting with Romania, but will be very happy with the result.
He added that while Ireland did not deliver in the warm-up games against Wales and England, the tournament schedule allowed the side to go in a bit undercooked.
"What you're seeing now is the machine we've come to expect under Joe Schmidt is really starting to crank up and we look in really good fettle going into Italy, which probably isn't as hard a game now as we thought it would be when the draw was made.
Canada recovered well from a heavy opening-round defeat to Ireland to give Italy a real scare on Saturday, but Jackman believes Italy will still provide Ireland with a tough challenge.
He also said the competitiveness within the Irish squad will set a level of competition and standard that group rivals France will not be able to match.
