Italy fly-half Tommaso Allan believes his side can front up to the challenge of RBS 6 Nations champions Ireland on Sunday with or without Sergio Parisse.
Allan kicked 13 points as the Azzurri beat Canada 23-18 on Saturday – their first win since toppling Scotland at BT Murrayfield in this year’s RBS 6 Nations.
Captain Parisse missed that and their World Cup Opener – a 32-10 defeat to France – with a calf problem and now faces a race to line up against Ireland.
However, Allan expects Italy to find an extra gear at the Olympic Stadium this weekend whether their talismanic No.8 is present or not.
“We miss Sergio but we’ve got a good replacement, Samuela (Vunisa) played well again,” he said.
“If Sergio comes in it’s a bonus. He’s been a great leader of the team for the past ten years but all the boys have gained more responsibility in his absence, which I think helps for the future.
“It was harder than expected – Canada really brought a good game. A win’s a win, it hasn’t happened since February so we can build on this going towards Ireland.
“Getting out of our half is quite messy, in the breakdown area we need to clear the ball better and we keep getting slow ball or dirty ball from the scrum-half and that didn’t help us.
“We pride ourselves on our defence, that’s one of our good strengths. We defended well, but we’ve got to improve our attacking.”
