Italy captain Juan Ignacio Brex says his side have been working hard to fix their defensive frailties in preparation to frustrate an Ireland team going all out for a bonus-point victory in Rome.
Having seen their Grand Slam aspirations emphatically extinguished by last weekend's Dublin drubbing against France, back-to-back champions Ireland retain only a slim chance of further Guinness Six Nations glory.
Italy’s porous backline shipped 18 tries during their last two championship games – a 73-24 round-three hammering against the French and last weekend’s 47-24 loss to England.
"We worked a lot in the week on our defence because the last two weeks was not nice and not easy for us because we conceded a lot of tries," said Brex, who has taken on the captaincy after regular skipper Michele Lamaro was dropped to the bench as part of seven changes from Twickenham.
"We need to be ready because Ireland play multi-phase rugby.
"I think they will try to keep the ball to try to attack us because they watched the last two games. They are here to take five points so our job is to deny it."
Ireland must win at Stadio Olimpico – ideally scoring at least four tries in the process to gain an extra point – to stand any chance of snatching the title.
Simon Easterby’s men will then require England to slip up away to Wales and table-topping France to lose at home to Scotland in the other two Super Saturday fixtures.
Ireland had hoped to arrive in the Italian capital on the cusp of a championship clean sweep before being blitzed 42-27 by Les Bleus last weekend.
"It’s never a good time to play Ireland," said Benetton centre Brex.
"You need to be ready that they are going to be in the best shape possible. You need to be ready because they are an incredible team, maybe top three in the world.
"It’s not a good time or a bad time (to play them).
"Probably they will come to do five points tomorrow, that’s the reality. We know that because we are the first game of Super Saturday."
Having previously finished bottom of the table for eight consecutive years, Italy are bidding to successfully avoid the wooden spoon for a second successive Six Nations.
Gonzalo Quesada’s Azzurri begin the weekend a point above winless Wales, whom they beat 22-15 in round two.
"Obviously we talk to each other about that but it’s not our first thought," 32-year-old Brex said of the wooden spoon.
"We are going to play the game, do our job and we try to change our picture, our image for Italian people, to make everyone proud.
"I think we have a lot of jobs to do before thinking about the table."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch Italy v Ireland (from 1.15pm) and France v Scotland (from 7.30pm) in the Guinness Six Nations on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player this Saturday.
Follow a live blog of both games on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, and listen to live commentary of Italy v Ireland on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
