Aoife Dalton breaks into the 22 and Ireland have the penalty advantage.

This is good early pressure from Scott Bemand's side.

Ireland turn the ball over and Dannah O'Brien thumps the ball down field.

Istuni Minuzzi finds touch near halfway, but Ireland have made about 40 metres of territory there.

We're going to have an early scrum with an Italian put in.

The packs are pretty evenly matched, with only 16kg between the two sides.

Off we go in Galway!

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The teams are out in Galway and we're going to have the anthems.

Ireland Rugby

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Robyn O'Connor will make her Ireland debut as head coach Scott Bemand makes three changes for Saturday's Women's Six Nations match against Italy in Galway.

The 20-year-old Leinster player, who previously represented Ireland in the sevens code, replaces Vicky Elmes Kinlan on the left wing.

Centre Nancy McGillivray and second row Ruth Campbell also come into the side with Eve Higgins and Dorothy Wall dropping to the bench for the game at Dexcom Stadium (17:40 BST), which hosts a Six Nations fixture for the first time.

Former co-captain Sam Monaghan is named on the bench after recovering from injury, while prop Sadhbh McGrath also comes into the matchday squad.

Ireland opened the Six Nations with a 33-12 loss to England at Allianz Stadium, while Italy were beaten 40-7 by France in Grenoble.

Ireland: Flood; Parsons, Dalton, McGillivray, O'Connor; O'Brien, Lane; Perry, Moloney-MacDonald, Djougang, Campbell, Tuite, Hogan, King (capt), Wafer.

Replacements: Jones, O'Dowd, McGrath, Wall, Monaghan, Whelan, Higgins, McGann.

Italy: Ostuni Minuzzi; Buso; D'Inca, Mannini; Muzzo; Stevanin, Stefan; Maris, Vecchini, Pilani; Fedrighi, Costantini; Sgorbini, Ranuccini, Giordano.

Replacements: Cheli, Turani, Zanette, Duca, Veronese, Bitonci, Madia, Sillari.

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Ireland head coach Scott Bemand says Aoife Wafer is "determined" to rediscover her best form in Saturday's Women's Six Nations game against Italy after a "quiet" afternoon in last week's defeat by England.

Having established herself as one of Ireland's star players, Wafer endured an injury-hit 2025, which impacted her World Cup and delayed her debut for Harlequins, who she joined from Leinster.

England's dominance ensured Wafer saw little of the ball before she was withdrawn after 61 minutes, but Bemand is expecting a more productive afternoon for the 23-year-old back row against the Italians in Galway.

"Maybe she's human. She's a great player, so driven," said Bemand.

"Look, she did have a quiet game. It was a tougher game to get her into. If you look at the first half, I think it was Anna [McGann] who said we sat down and watched the opportunities that went by.

"It's important to acknowledge them. If you don't get through enough phases or sets, you miss the opportunity to get your best players on the ball."

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Ireland wing Beibhinn Parsons insists she will feel no extra pressure when representing her country in a Women's Six Nations game in her native Galway for the first time.

It will mark the first time Connacht's Dexcom Stadium has staged a Six Nations match.

Born and raised in Ballinasloe, just under 40 miles east from the 12,500-capacity stadium in Galway city, Parsons has played numerous games at the Dexcom and as recently as February with the Clovers in the Celtic Challenge.

But, after making her Ireland debut aged 16 in 2018, it will be her first time playing in the Six Nations at her local ground.

"Definitely the latter," Parsons said when asked if playing for Ireland in the West will be a burdensome or liberating experience for her.

"I'll feel really well supported going into Galway and I feel like all my friends and family are there so I'll just want to do them proud.

"We've felt the green wave growing and this is an opportunity to see how much it has grown over the World Cup with a game back on Irish soil."

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Best friends Anna McGann and Eve Higgins have been driving forces behind Ireland's 'green wave' for their performances on the pitch for their country and off the pitch with their TikToks.

Sharing a combined following of over 33,000 on the platform, the duo have gained popularity for their lip-syncs, dances and insights into the team's camp during tournaments.

Despite their natural ability to bounce off each other in their videos, McGann admitted it was difficult to get Higgins on board with her ideas in the beginning.

"At the start I'd ask Eve and she'd be like 'no' and then I eventually got her - and once I got her she was hooked and here we are," McGann told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

"Eve will come up with hilarious ones. It was so easy when we were rooming at the World Cup together. The girls in the room beside us said all you could hear was silence and then giggles of us thinking of something!"

"We'll both save things and when we see each other we'll be like, 'do you want to do that one?', and it's infectious," added Higgins.

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Kicking coach Gareth Steenson says Ireland "should have high expectations" as they look to kick-start their Women's Six Nations campaign with victory over Italy in Galway.

Ireland opened the tournament with a 33-12 defeat by world champions England at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

But Steenson insists the Irish have no interest in "making up the numbers" as they target home wins over Italy, Wales and Scotland and a statement away victory over France.

"They should have high expectations, why would they not? They're playing for their country," said Steenson.

"We want to go to the next World Cup and be competitors. We don't want to go and make up numbers, we want to be going into Six Nations games and we want to be going and winning games, but we have to understand that to get there we have to keep going on a journey to get to that point."

Steenson added: "You have to take every session to grow and get better. We've got three games at home, we want to win the three games at home and then we want to go over to France next week and we want to be knocking and getting into that top four [in the world].

"There's a bit of hurt from what happened at the World Cup and we want to make sure we can put a few wrongs right."

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Former Ireland international Lindsay Peat said she was "frustrated" that Ireland "didn't fire enough shots" in their 33-12 Women's Six Nations defeat by England.

Scott Bemand's side made a slow start against the world champions in front of a record Women's Six Nations crowd of 77,120 at Allianz Stadium and trailed 21-0 at half-time.

They responded well in the second half and got on the board courtesy of tries from Anna McGann and Erin King, but Peat was disappointed that they did not threaten more against an England side that were far from their sparkling best.

"I'm frustrated and I say I speak for a lot of players and the management team, it's a level of frustration because we didn't fire enough shots and showcase a consistency. There were small glimpses, two great tries but the story of being too little too late," Peat told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

"England, world champions and you can forgive them for having a little bit of a hangover, they've been superstars. They looked a little bit out of sorts, but we kept giving them the ball back.

"On paper, 33-12 is a really good score considering it was 49-5 and 88-10 the years before. On paper, huge improvement against the world champions but really, watching the game, I've been left frustrated personally."

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It's a day for it, to be fair.

France are tipped to be England's nearest challengers and they put in a superb second-half performance as they beat Italy 40-7 in the opening game of the Women's Six Nations.

England opened their title defence with a comfortable win over Ireland in front of a record Women's Six Nations crowd of 77,120 at Allianz Stadium.

It was the Red Roses' first match since they became world champions in September and was their 34th consecutive Test win.

Hooker Amy Cokayne crossed for the opening try, with prop Sarah Bern grabbing two first-half scores.

Slick handling then put Ellie Kildunne clear, but unlike her brilliant solo try in the World Cup final, the full-back lost control when attempting to ground the ball in one hand.

Early in the second half, Jess Breach raced onto a kick through to expertly grab the important bonus-point try in front of the record attendance.

The previous record crowd for a Women's Six Nations game was the 58,498 that watched the Grand Slam decider between England and France in 2023.

Ireland scored next through replacement Anna McGann, which was cancelled out by an excellent finish from Kildunne.

Captain Erin King bagged the final try of the game as the visitors avoided another heavy defeat by the Red Roses.

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Hi!

It's a wonderful day for some rugby and Ireland and Italy will round out the second weekend of the Women's Six Nations.

Both sides lost their opening matches, against England and France respectively, and will look to get back on track in their second outings.

Ireland will be favourites to pick up their first win of this year's tournament, but Italy cannot be discounted, especially as they won in Dublin in 2024.

We'll have live updates here, and you can also watch the game on this page and on BBC iPlayer.

Thanks for joining us.