Is Italy vs Ireland on TV? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch Six Nations fixture

The two remaining winless sides in the Six Nations 2021 go head-to-head this weekend as Italy host Ireland.

These nations are also the lowest-scoring teams by a distance after two matches apiece, with Ireland’s pair of tries thus far a tournament low.

Andy Farrell’s side have suffered back-to-back losses for the first time ever in their opening two Six Nations matches, losing to Wales first of all and following that up with defeat two weeks ago to France.

Ireland were the last team Italy managed to beat on home soil in this competition, but that win came seven years ago - and it’s almost six years to the day since the Italians last celebrated victory.

FOLLOW LIVE - Italy vs Ireland: Six Nations latest score and updates from fixture today

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the game.

READ MORE: Full Six Nations schedule, fixtures and TV channels

When is the match?

Kick-off is at 2:15pm GMT on Saturday, 27 February.

Where can I watch?

The match will be broadcast live on ITV, with coverage starting from 1:30pm.

Team news

Italy name an unchanged team from the side which started in the defeat to England.

An all-new front row for Ireland sees Will Connors coming in at open-side flanker, with seven changes made by Andy Farrell in total.

Line-ups

Italy XV: 15-Jacopo Trulla, 14- Luca Sperandio, 13-Ignacio Brex, 12-Carlo Canna, 11-Montanna Ioane, 10-Paolo Garbisi, 9-Stephen Varney; 1-Andrea Lovotti, 2-Luca Bigi (capt), 3-Marco Riccioni, 4-Marco Lazzaroni, 5- David Sisi, 6-Sebastian Negri, 7-Johan Meyer, 8-Michele Lamaro

Replacements: 16-Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17-Cherif Traore, 18-Giosue Zilocchi, 19-Niccolo Cannone, 20- Maxime Mbanda, 21-Callum Bradley, 22-Federico Mori, 23-Mattia Bellini

Ireland XV: 15-Hugo Keenan, 14-Jordan Larmour, 13-Garry Ringrose, 12-Robbie Henshaw, 11-James Lowe, 10-Jonathan Sexton (capt), 9-Jamison Gibson-Park; 1-Dave Kilcoyne, 2-Ronan Kelleher, 3-Tadhg Furlong, 4-Iain Henderson, 5-James Ryan, 6-Tadhg Beirne, 7-Will Connors, 8-CJ Stander

Replacements: 16-Rob Herring, 17-Cian Healy, 18-Andrew Porter, 19-Ryan Baird, 20-Jack Conan, 21-Craig Casey, 22-Billy Burns, 23-Keith Earls

Prediction

A 30th defeat in succession beckons for Italy, though Ireland will hope for significant improvements in performance even outside the final score - they’ve only manged two tries so far from their opening two games.

Odds

Italy - 21/1

Draw - 94/1

Ireland - 1/16

Rugby coverage is brought to you in association with QBE who help businesses build resilience through risk management and insurance. For more information go to QBEEUROPE.com