The best Italy to reach the quarter-finals Mallett: "The Azzurri are like my children"

The visibly moved coach chose his starting line-up for Sunday: "We have the same chances as Ireland of qualifying and we should be proud of that”. Masi replaces McLean, while Benvenuti and Van Zyl keep their places. O’Connell back for the Irish, while O'Gara starts

Mauro Bergamasco and Keith Earls. Afp

For the most important match, it is the most experienced Italy. There are no surprises in the team selected to face Ireland on Sunday (9.30am Italian time) in a match that will decide which of the teams qualifies for the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The only (announced) change to the team that beat the United States on Tuesday is the return of Andrea Masi at full-back in place of Luke McLean after was left out as a precaution in the match at Nelson because of a slight calf strain. There are however two surprises in the Irish starting line-up, both the halfbacks: Ronan O’Gara will play at fly-half and Conor Murray at 9. O'Gara, who is Ireland's leading scorer, has been preferred to the younger Jonathan Sexton because of his experience and because of his better goalkicking in this World Cup. Murray has been preferred to Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss, probably because of his attacking skills. Murray, who is only 22 years old and plays for Munster (where he is third-choice scrum-half behind O’Leary and old man Stringer) has only had one start for the national team. If this is not a gamble by the Irish coach, Declan Kidney, then it's not far short.

VISIBLY MOVED — The match that will be played under the roof of the Otago Stadium could be the 42nd and final match of Nick Mallett's time in charge. "I have already thanked the players for everything they have done in these four seasons - explained the South African coach, visibly moved - I preferred not to wait until Sunday because on the day of the match everybody must be totally focused on what is happening on the pitch. It's been a great four years. They have never let me down and by playing their hearts out they have managed to overcome the most difficult moments, the most difficult situations. I will be leaving behind an exceptional group, which has improved vastly and where there is still room for improvement. It's not going to be easy to leave them because these boys have been my Italian family and when a parent has to leave a child, it's always a very painful moment. But now we need to concentrate on the match against Ireland. The whole of our long training programme was centred on this match. Five days rest between one match and another is not very much - the scrum had to work very hard against the United States. But we can do well and there is now an awareness that we can match them. I have chosen my strongest line-up, without any hesitation. The 13 tries we've scored in the last two matches show that in attack were heading in the right direction. In defence we need to make a few adjustments, because any mistakes against Ireland will be very costly". The battle is approaching and the uniforms are about to be given out.

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