Ireland and Italy minus key players

Ireland v Italy is merely a curtainraiser at Soldier Field in Chicago tomorrow. It is the appetiser to the main meal that is the United States v New Zealand Maori.

And the line-ups say so.

Six Nations champions Ireland have left at home the likes of captain Rory Best, vice-captain Jonathan Sexton, Peter O’Mahony, Rob Kearney, and Keith Earls.

Bigger fry are around the corner — Argentina and New Zealand — and the World Cup is less than a year away.

Six Nations wooden spooners Italy have done the same. Injuries, a fixture outside the normal window and the need to save some ammo for the Wallabies and All Blacks caused the Italians to leave behind the likes of captain Sergio Parisse, Tommaso Allan, Matteo Minozz and Leonardo Sarto.

Italy coach and former Ireland back Conor O’Shea planned well enough to pick his side an unusual 11 days before the match.

There are only two survivors from the Six Nations match in Dublin in February: front rowers Luca Bigi and Nicola Quaglio.

Centre Michele Campagnaro will captain Italy for the first time, and there will be a debut for South African flanker Johan Meyer, who could be replaced by another debutant, New Zealander Jimmy Tuivaiti.

Ireland have four surviving starters from the same match, in forwards Jack McGrath and Jack Conan, and backs Bundee Aki and Jacob Stockdale, the player of the Six Nations for scoring seven tries in five matches.

While Ireland look light on caps, the names are still familiar: Rhys Ruddock is captain, having previously led on the June 2017 tour of the US and Japan; there’s next-bigthing Jordan Larmour; and first-five Joey Carbery, the heir apparent to Sexton.

Carbery made his debut replacing Sexton during the historic first win over the All Blacks at Soldier Field in 2016, and this will be only his fourth start.

“It’s cool to be back,” Carbery says. “Great memories, this is where it started. It’s weird, it doesn’t feel like two years since we were last here.”

Even with uncapped backs Ross Byrne and Will Addison in the reserves, Ireland should still be too good again for Italy. The Irish have lost to them only once in 21 years.

But Italy don’t carry as much baggage as they used to. Beating Japan in the second test in Kobe in June ended an eight-test losing run and a two-year losing streak away from home.