Scott Bemand insists his side have learned from their mistakes at Twickenham last week as they look to get their Guinness Women's Six Nations campaign up and running on Saturday.
Ireland were slow out of the blocks against the world champions last week as they trailed 21-0 at half-time, before a closer second half saw them beaten 33-12 by the Red Roses.
Ireland were rank outsiders for their visit to London a week ago, but the dynamic this week is considerably different, with Bemand’s side big favourites at home against an Italian team they defeated 54-12 just under a year ago.
"Getting on the front foot early is important," the Ireland head coach said, after naming his team for Saturday's game at Dexcom Stadium.
"We didn't get that right last week. And we've looked at it, acknowledged it, took the learnings from it and now we've got to get it right."
Having picked up two wins from five in each of their last two Six Nations championships, there has been a consistent message from Bemand, his assistant coaches and the players that three home wins is their benchmark for 2026.
As usual, Ireland will bring their home games around the country, starting with this Saturday at Dexcom Stadium in Galway.
As it stands, Saturday at the Sportsground looks set to be a record attendance for the Irish women’s team at home, although that mark will be broken again next month when they host Scotland at Aviva Stadium, with more than 18,000 tickets sold for that final round at Lansdowne Road.
And as expectations rise, Bemand (above) knows his team have to react accordingly.
"The mindset of, if you want to call it favourites, but certainly playing at home, is slightly different," he added.
"But we go after a performance as much as anything. What we've got this time is 8,500 people [at Dexcom Stadium], I think, so far.
"So we understand how this can feel a bit different. Again, we said last week, it needs to become an energising factor rather than a daunting factor.
"We didn't get the start that we wanted over England, but we're absolutely in the right space now that we've got the expectation on ourselves to start big rather than find our way into the game.
"So we're pretty excited to get there and bring the green wave to Galway. We're excited for it to be a record crowd. And hopefully we can show that what we've done in training worked hard this week and we get that fast start that we're after."
The former England assistant has tweaked his team after last week’s defeat to Italy, with debutant Robyn O'Connor coming in for Vicky Elmes Kinlan on the left wing, Nancy McGillivray replacing Eve Higgins in the centre, and Ruth Campbell starting at lock, with Dorothy Wall dropping to the bench.
"We've got a few girls like Ruth coming in. I thought Ruth did a great job when she came on against England last week," the head coach said.
"She'd been a bit unlucky the week before, had suffered a little bit of illness, which probably took her out of the running for the start last week."
And Bemand is backing his experienced bench to come on and make an impact against the Italians, just as Wall did in this fixture 12 months ago when she scored a try in Parma.
"That's a bench that's got impact.
"I thought Dorothy Wall trained unbelievably well yesterday and she's going to get plenty of minutes. Her challenge this week is to elevate the game so far away from what the Italians can cope with that it becomes not a game. It becomes a one-sided affair.
"We've always known we want to get to this depth. I think we're starting to get there. I'm really excited to see what that group can do when they come on.
"I think it's starting to show a healthy state that the squad is in when we can either leave people out that really shouldn't be left out because they're quality players or they find themselves on the bench and can come on and bring that impact to finish a game."
While Wall and Higgins move from the starting team to the bench, Elmes Kinlan misses out on the matchday squad entirely, with Anna McGann retaining the outside-back slot among the replacements.
And Bemand admits it was a tough decision to leave the 23-year-old out of this week after some vital defensive interventions at Twickenham last week.
"Tuesday night was busy for me, in terms of selections.
"In this scenario, we're not talking about people being dropped. We're talking about selections.
"Vicky Elmes-Kinlan [below] is unlucky not to get another go. She's an unbelievable player.
"If you look at some of the work that she did off the ball in disrupting Ellie Kildunne when she dropped the ball over the line, nearly holding Jess Breach up over the line, pushing Jess into touch in one of the first attacking sets that England have. There's some really impressive moments from Vicky.
"What we've done with Vicky, she is absolutely in the mix to be selected against France.
"What we're doing is we're selecting a group appropriate for a game and a group where we need to see what players can do on the international stage.
"Vicky's been so consistent in the Celtic Challenge. She scored a lot of tries in that and she's been brilliant in training.
"Things we see from her physicality, pace, gear shift, Robyn's been doing that as well and I've got four wingers that are vying for those positions at this point. There's more coming through as well and I've got room for three of them in a matchday squad.
"It's really tough. Vicky understands the scenario that she finds herself in. I thought yesterday she'd trained the house down again and she's got every opportunity to play her way in for the France game."
