Ireland must focus on disrupting Italy’s set-pieces regardless of whether their top players win their fitness battles, says scrum coach Greg Feek.
Having missed the defeat to France and the win over Canada, captain Sergio Parisse joined with the squad on Tuesday and faces a fitness test before the team is selected.
However, hooker and stand-in skipper Leonardo Ghiraldini is unlikely to make the squad having limped off with a leg injury against the North Americans.
Feek told RTÉ Sport: “They’ve got a strong set-piece regardless of whether Parisse is there or Ghiraldini. They’ve got guys who can slot in there quite well.
“We know that they’ve got a huge amount to play for this weekend, similar to us, so it’s going to be probably bigger than a Six Nations [match].
“Their defence has become a real weapon [in] their game, how they get on the ball at ruck time [is good] and they’ve been playing some good rugby.
“They do [have a fantastic back row]. [Alessandro] Zanni and [second row Josh] Furno. They’ve got so much experience, they really lift when they are playing for Italy.
“We’ve done our analysis on them. We’ve tried to work out how to negate that.
“It all comes down to how we get our game plan into place."
Commenting on his own brief, the scrum, the New Zealander said: “Everyone has bought into what we’re trying to do as a unit and no matter who’s playing, they slot into that, they do what the system tells them to do.
“The more the guys believe in that the better we get and hopefully we can keep building on that.”
Ireland play Italy on Sunday at 4.45pm at the Olympic Stadium in London (live on RTÉ Radio 1).
