Opportunity and expectation awaits rotated Irish side

France away may have presented a bigger challenge, but Ireland's meeting with Italy at the Aviva Stadium provides a different kind of test.

Andy Farrell has generally been a fan of continuity in his selections. Some would say that continuity was to a fault in the World Cup last year.

Having given three inexperienced players a chance to impress in Marseille last week, it would have been very tempting to simply run it back this afternoon against Italy.

Jack Crowley, Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash are all still learning the ropes of Test rugby, and there were obvious merits in giving them another opportunity to gel alongside the experienced Test crew.

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The RTÉ Rugby panel discuss Andy Farrell's selection

Instead, Farrell has decided to shuffle his deck with six changes to his side for the visit of the Italians to Dublin.

Of course, if you're going to rotate your squad, history would show that Italy is the game to do it in.

This is the third year in a row that the Ireland coach has made six personnel changes for the meeting with the Azzurri.

In recent years, the timing of the fixture also made sense to rotate. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 Ireland's game against Italy fell in Round 3, wedged in between the fallow weeks, presenting an ideal opportunity to give some of the frontliners a decent break ahead of the run in.

While injuries to Tadhg Furlong (above), Peter O'Mahony and Bundee Aki forced his hand somewhat, Farrell could have resisted the urge to make further changes, but