2015 Rugby World Cup has now reached its penultimate round of the group stage games and on a Super Sunday, Six Nations champions Ireland will be locking horns with Italy at the Olympic Stadium in London.
Ireland have thumped two of their opponents Canada (50-7) and Romania (44-10) in their last two games of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Now they will be up against Italy, who will be desperate to make it to the next round of the tournament.
Italy have a mountain to climb on Sunday when they will take the field against Six Nations champions Ireland. If they would want to qualify for the knockout round, then they will have to overcome the superpower of Ireland. And so far in this tournament, they have managed to win one and lose the other. In order to keep themselves afloat in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Italy will have to win this game against the mighty Irish blokes.
"I am convinced that we can win, but up until now we haven't been able to play the rugby that we were expecting," Italy's coach Jacques Brunel told the media at a press conference ahead of Sunday's encounter against Ireland.
Ireland have a tag of the underachievers in the World Cups and they are also desperate to shrugg that off their shoulders. In this Pool D encounter, Ireland will be the clear favourite in front of a capacity crowd at the Olympic Stadium.
"Italy's last game prior to the tournament was the very narrow 23-19 loss at the Millennium Stadium against Wales. We know what they are capable of producing - particularly when Parisse is playing for them," Ireland's head coach Joe Schmidt told reporters ahead of Sunday's game against Italy.
Teams:
Ireland: Simon Zebo; Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Dave Kearney; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Mike Ross; Iain Henderson, Paul O'Connell (C); Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Cian Healy, Nathan White, Devin Toner, Chris Henry, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Luke Fitzgerald.
Italy: Luke McLean; Leonardo Sarto, Michele Capagnaro, Gonzalo Garcia, Giovanbattista Venditti; Tommaso Allan, Edoardo Gori; Matias Aguero, Andrea Manici, Lorenzo Cittadini; Quintin Geldenhuys, Josh Furno; Francesco Minton, Simone Favaro, Sergio Parisse (C).
Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Michele Rizzo, Dario Chistolini, Alessandro Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna, Tommaso Benvenuti.
Where to watch live
Ireland vs Italy is scheduled for an 4:45pm BST (9:15pm IST, 2pm ET) start. Indian viewers can watch the game live on Sony Six.
The UK and Ireland viewers can watch Ireland vs Italy live on ITV1, with the live stream option on ITV Player.
Sky Sport will cover the Ireland vs Italy live in New Zealand, while the action can also be watched via live streaming on Sky Go NZ.
USA viewers can watch the Rugby World Cup match live on Universal Sports, while the big game can also be live streamed on Universal Sports Online.
Ireland vs Italy will be shown live in South Africa on SuperSport, while the live stream option is on SuperSport Live Video.
