O'Sullivan Calls for Irish Focus

The eve of St Patrick's day found Ireland strolling in the Rome sun in the Via Vittorio Veneto, for all the world looking like Six Nations champions-elect even if their coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, was predicting storm clouds on the horizon. It is not what the weathermen say but today in the Stadio Flaminio O'Sullivan forecasts thunder from an Italian side still high on wins over Scotland and Wales, whom Ireland have to beat convincingly to claim a first championship since 1985.

"We always have difficult games here," said O'Sullivan. "I have never left Rome after a Six Nations match and said we've had an easy game. We've won but we've had to work bloody hard and it's getting harder. If Italy can win tomorrow they will have three wins out of five. It will be a phenomenal success as a team and a real marker for the World Cup."

O'Sullivan had just been asked about Ireland's chances of overhauling France's points advantage - at present four: "I have too many things going on in my head without wasting time with that stuff," replied the coach, who described it as "whistling past a graveyard".

"If you go into the game with notions of scoring points and thinking about the margin and stuff you'll be in trouble. At the end of the day, once you've won, that's when you look at the scoreboard. It's about us getting our result and then see what happens in the other games."

Ireland kick off two hours before France, hoping to put down their own marker for the World Cup and end the championship in the form they showed in the autumn but only against England in the Six Nations. O'Sullivan says it will be a dogfight but better preparation for France 2007 than those convincing autumn wins over South Africa and Australia.

"Six Nations rugby is very intense and teams in the northern hemisphere are much better for it," said O'Sullivan. "We do joust with the southern hemisphere at the end of our season and in the autumn and they are good games, they are intense, but they are not Six Nations."

The prop Marcus Horan is "95% certain" to play but Ireland will miss Paul O'Connell's skills in discomfiting a solid Italian lineout. There will be a Munster second-row pairing but this time Mick O'Driscoll lines up alongside Donncha O'Callaghan for his first Six Nations start.

O'Driscoll, 28, has eight caps but all as a replacement, a position he knows too well at both Test and club level. He even spent two seasons with Perpignan seeking first-team rugby after five largely on the Munster bench. However, O'Connell's broken thumb gives O'Driscoll his chance.

Italy are still smarting at the banning of their try-scoring flanker Mauro Bergamasco for punching the Wales captain Stephen Jones and the lack of "respect" the coach Pierre Berbizier believes his side has been shown. "Italy should be treated like other nations. Last year Ireland's [Brian] O'Driscoll and [Denis] Leamy were not judged for stamping on the heads of Fabio Ongaro and Paul Griffen."

Berbizier's anger may be an attempt to stoke Italian fires further but he has lost one of his better players. Mauro, the elder brother of Mirco, is replaced by the less experienced Maurizio Zaffiri. The same goes for Ezio Galon, who replaces the injured Gonzalo Canale. The other change from the side that beat Wales is Andrea Lo Cicero (flu) making way for Salvatore Perugini, but of greater concern to Berbizier should be the problem at half-back.

Alessandro Troncon's return has given Italy better direction but Brian O'Driscoll was referring to the scrum-half's lack of speed when he talked about Italian "frailties". The Ireland captain could also have mentioned Troncon's alignment with Ramiro Pez in defence, plus the No10's distribution, which is unlikely to create regular routes to the Ireland line.

Stadio Flaminio, today, 1.30pm Referee J Kaplan (South Africa) TV BBC1

15 R de Marigny Calvisano

14 K Robertson Viadana

13 E Galon Ov Parma

12 M Bergamasco Stade F

11 M Pratichetti Calvisano

10 R Pez Narbonne

9 A Troncon Clermont

1 S Perugini Toulouse

2 C Festuccia Gran Parma

3 C Nieto Gloucester

4 S Dellape Biarritz

5 M Bortolami Gloucester, capt

6 M Zaffiri Calvisano

7 A Zanni Calvisano

8 S Parisse Stade Français

Replacements L Ghiraldini (Calvisano), F Staibano (Gran Parma), V Bernabo (Calvisano), J Sole (Viadana), P Griffen, A Scanavacca (both Calvisano), M Barbini (Treviso) 15 G Dempsey Leinster

14 S Horgan Leinster

13 B O'Driscoll L'nst', capt

12 G D'Arcy Leinster

11 D Hickie Leinster

10 R O'Gara Munster

9 P Stringer Munster

1 M Horan Munster

2 R Best Ulster

3 J Hayes Munster

4 M O'Driscoll Munster

5 D O'Callaghan Munster

6 S Easterby Scarlets

7 D Wallace Munster

8 D Leamy Munster

Replacements J Flannery (Ulster), S Best (Ulster), T Hogan (Leinster), N Best (Ulster), E Reddan (Wasps), P Wallace (Ulster), A Trimble (Ulster)