Azzurri face an uphill battle

A five-day turnaround between playing the United States and Ireland has caused problems for Italy who are attempting to reach the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time.

The must-win games mean no room for resting anyone carrying a minor niggle, a dilemma about when to bring on replacements in the USA game, and the scrapping of most practice sessions.

Italy must win both matches by a substantial margin and with bonus points to be in the reckoning with Ireland and Australia in the scrap for the two play-off berths from Pool C.

While it is fashionable for coaches to say they focus on one game at a time, Italy coach Nick Mallet is viewing the United States-Ireland double as one package.

"We've got to win these next two games to go through to the quarterfinals, we don't have much time to give too many opportunities to players," he said on Sunday when unveiling his top side to play the United States in two days.

Mallet needs his side to a have a commanding lead midway through the second half against the United States, otherwise he may not be able to substitute his big-game players singling out Martin Castrogiovanni and Sergio Parisse in particular.

"We've got to win this game and I can't risk losing the game by taking off key players," he said.

"Obviously, I'd like to do that to allow them to only play 60 out of 80 minutes but if the game is really tight, which it could quite easily be against the United States, I think that it's difficult to do that because we must win at all cost."

"When you look at the way they played against Ireland they hung in their right until the end of the game when it was 22-3 and they scored the intercept try to make it 22-10 so I don't think the United States are a side that are going to crack," he explained.

Mallet said if it was a tough game against the United States as expected he would give his side as much rest as possible before they face Ireland in Dunedin on October 2.

"We'll probably only have one proper practise in the week and give them two days after the game as recovery time."

AFP