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A SUNDAY kick-off in Rome sees the Six Nations champions go off Broadway for the weekend, ceding the stage to the protagonists in Paris and Cardiff today.

When the dust has settled on the eagerly-anticipated games between France and Scotland, and Wales and England, Joe Schmidt wants his team to remind the world of how good they can be at the Stadio Olimpico.

For a man who lost four players on the eve of his squad announcement, the coach was in upbeat form yesterday.

As well as resting Rory Best, Cian Healy and James Ryan, Schmidt was forced to do without Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour, Robbie Henshaw and Jack Conan after an attritional training session on Wednesday and yet he seemed revived by the weekend off and confident his much-changed team would deliver a performance against Italy.

The New Zealander spent much of his briefing with the daily newspapers reflecting on the defeat to England in the opening round, despite the fact that more than half of his team has changed since that fixture.

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In particular, he spoke about his team rediscovering their abrasive edge against the Azzurri; bringing the right level of aggression while staying on the right side of referee Glen Jackson.

And he wants them to prove they can figure their way out of games, regardless of whether they lead from the front or are forced to chase down a lead.

“It’s not very often that I’d say it wasn’t

quite at its zenith,” he said of the team’s physicality against England.

“We normally present a real physical challenge to our opponents. We can reflect on the England game and we weren’t quite where we needed to be. I’d be the first to admit that and take a degree of responsibility in that.

“You take for granted that that’s where you’re going to be up and at them and maybe we needed to do just a little bit more contact in that period.

“You’ve got to be able to self-solve, you’ve got to be able to find those solutions and our players are really good at doing that.

“We’ve been down, struggling at times in games and we’ve found a way. There are stats saying that if we lead at halftime, we’re incredibly hard to beat.

“Now, we’d love to be hard to beat and we’d love to lead every game at half-time but it’s not always going to be the case, so how do we make sure that if we’re not leading at half-time, we keep our resolve, we make sure we solve some of the problems if they are happening.

“The first try we give up through a defensive error, the second try is a defensive error as well and the third try is a head-start that Jonny May gets that’s pretty difficult then to contain.

“As much as I felt England thoroughly deserved to win, I’m not sure, in the aftermath there was quite the space of difference between the teams that was written up.

“I guess the only way we can demonstrate that is maybe the next time we play England or maybe in these next three games we can demonstrate that, ‘hey, we haven’t gone away, we’re still very capable of getting into games and delivering that cohesion, that collective continuity and that level of abrasion you need within the laws’.”

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Even with the changes to the team, Ireland will be confident of having enough to see their way past this Italian side who will front up at home but haven’t got the class to truly trouble their visitors.

Schmidt is hoping an unchanged backline can find their attacking rhythm, while he will expect the four new faces in his pack to respond to the investment of faith in their ability.

This is a real opportunity to shine. “There is no beating around the bush, the World Cup is in whatever it is, (seven) months’ time,” Jordi Murphy said after being named at No 8.

“This is a big opportunity and I plan on taking it with both hands. They don’t come by that often because a lot of the boys in these positions have been playing really well.”

So, they will not be short of motivation. Nor will Italy who are yet to win a Six Nations match under Conor O’Shea.

That is unlikely to change tomorrow afternoon. The Azzurri have struggled to live with this Irish team who force them into making tackle after tackle until they break.

Italy away on a Sunday is never the most glamorous of fixtures, but having coughed up the Grand Slam hopes on opening night the coach wants his team to remind the world of what they can do in the remaining three games.

A dazzling performance in Rome will get the ball rolling.