"Priority One" - Ireland's Stuart McCloskey prepared for centre battle with Italy superstar Tommaso Menoncello

The Benetton man has a formidable track record in the Six Nations, and holds the honour of being the youngest ever winner of the Player of the Tournament award, as he collected the title in 2024 aged just 21. Menoncello is the gel that binds the Italian attack together, with a devastating first step and a powerful carry across the gain-line. McCloskey spoke in the week about how Ireland hope to contain his threat, and did not downplay just how integral Menoncello has become to Gonzalo Quesada's back-line.

"I'll tell you what you all probably already know, but he's got that X-factor, his pace, he's powerful. He's got a pretty good offloading game. He breaks more tackles than most other centres as well.

"His X-factor is just physicality. He's probably one of the most athletic centres in the world, if not the most athletic. So trying to get on top of him physically for me is probably priority one.”

As is the case with any blockbuster opponent, the Ireland team spent some time scouting out Menoncello in a similar fettle to their preparations for France's Antoine Dupont. However, McCloskey shared how he is hopeful that the Italy centre will have less of an influence upon the match, than that of the Les Bleus' resident scrum half maestro from last Thursday's defeat in Paris.

“It's probably different, like Menoncello's not going to touch the ball as much as Dupont does. Dupont's involved in probably everything France does. There'll definitely be a bit of an emphasis on him, along with other guys on their team, especially some of the backs.”

As McCloskey suggested, the Italian back-line is not limited in attacking firepower. Whilst Menoncello is the eye-catching starter in the centres, Quesada has ample options at his disposal to unleash at the Aviva. Italy have never secured a senior men's Test victory in Dublin, yet this stacked side enter the Irish capital on a wave of momentum following a strong 18-15 win over Scotland last weekend.

"They've got so much better." McCloskey added. "They have been doing that for the last few years, beating Scotland at the weekend. For me, it's the backs, (Ignacio) Brex and Menoncello; played against them a few times now. It's always been a good contest but they're probably the heartbeat of the team.

"I know Brex might not be there this week, but whoever goes in there in his place, I’m sure will do the same job. (Ange) Capuozzo, (Paolo) Garbisi, I think all these guys are pretty hot when you let them be on the day. So try and get in their faces, try to disrupt their game. Don't give them that flow that their backs are looking for. And yet they still have that physicality but hopefully we can be just physical, if not more."

McCloskey was correct in his assumption that Italy will enter the second round of the Six Nations without Juan Ignacio Brex. The RC Toulon wrecking ball has not travelled across to Ireland, as he heads home due to family reasons. The Italy centre partnership instead sees Menoncello line up alongside his Benetton club mate Leonardo Marin, with no lack of cohesion expected from the Trevisan duo.

“I don't know if Brex is going to play this week, but him [Menoncello] and Brex have got a great partnership." McCloskey explained.

"I think when you have that as well, you sort of feed off each other. Brex sometimes doesn't get all the plaudits, but I think he's a lot to do with why Menoncello gets a lot of half-shoulders and is allowed to look as good as he is."

Looking back upon his own Irish midfield, and McCloskey has been picked to start for the second Test in a row, as he re-forms a centre pairing with Leinster's Garry Ringrose. McCloskey jumped at the opportunity left by an injured Robbie Henshaw and a suspended Bundee Aki, as the Ulster stand-out acknowledged the tough competition to break into Andy Farrell's starting centres.

McCloskey shared how he feels confident heading into his second consecutive hit-out in the starting XV, as he gets ready to run the ropes with Garry Ringrose.

“Yes, I'd like to think I'm fairly confident anyway. I don't know if it's my jersey or not but just the amount of time I've been here, competing with Robbie and Bundee for that jersey, probably the guts of the last six or seven years. At my age now, if you're not confident in what you do, you probably shouldn't be here. So yes, I'm fairly confident. I'd like to think I'm a confident player anyway. I'll just try and take that into the games.”

"I think we've [McCloskey and Ringrose] had some great games in the past, had some great games together. I think we started most of that Six Nations, won the Grand Slam a few years ago. We've played together in fits and starts. I think all four of the centres have done that over the last five or six years. We've got a pretty good partnership and hopefully we'll build on that during this next four games.”

Looking across the wider Ireland team, and the 33-year-old expressed how it is time for Ireland to evolve onwards and upwards from the opening round defeat to France. The 25-capped international did not shy away from how reviewing the defeat in Saint-Denis brought about a tough start to the week, yet the squad has since turned a corner to be fired up for Saturday.

"It’s [the mood in camp] probably starting to pick up a bit now. Yeah, a tough few days. Had a couple of days off after the French game. Came back in, obviously reviewed it pretty hard. Hopefully we've learned a bit from it. But overall, yeah, I was disappointed for a few days there but you've got to get over these things pretty quickly in the Six Nations."

"We're trying to evolve. And when any team tries to evolve, there's obviously a bit of teething problems. I don't think it was so much the attack, rather than more dropped balls [against France]. We maybe had about nine knock-ons. I know the weather was greasy, but they made it look fairly simple at times.

"So, it's hard to get into your attack and really get any flow when there's a lot of disjointed dropped balls. Set piece went well, we had ball there. We didn't really get any balls back in the aerial game, which is what we sort of targeted early. They did really well there, to be fair to them [France]. I think we thought we could get after them, all three back-three for them did a great job. We had to adapt and probably left it a wee bit too late to adapt."