Irish rugby has improved to such a dramatic extent that they are seen as outside contenders for this years World Cup but while Italian rugbys improvement is more modest, Parisse will not rule out a third consecutive victory for the Azzurri in Saturdays game at the Stadio Flaminio.

Parisse said that the preparation for the Ireland game was thorough.

He said: The match against the Irish is over six days, not only 80 minutes.

We started on Monday with a hard training session and then we had a quieter Tuesday.

Ireland are still competing for the Six Nations title and - although Italy are still mathematically in contention - it would take a freak set of circumstances for that to occur.

But the fact that, technically, Italy could still win it going into their last game shows how far the Azzurri have come in a tournament where they have usually been recipients of the wooden spoon since joining the Five Nations in 2000.

Italy lost their opener, 39-3 at home to France, but then went down to a creditable 20-7 defeat at Twickenham against England.

But it was at Edinburgh that the Azzurri made their real breakthrough with a 37-17 win against Scotland, their first win away from Rome in the RBS 6 Nations.

They followed that up with a 30-23 win over Wales at the Flaminio to ensure their most successful ever finish.

Parisse is hoping Italy will round things off in style against the Irish in the Eternal City on St Patricks Day.

I'm sure it will be a great game, but we must be capable to play at our best against Ireland, said Parisse, who was outstanding in the Wales game.

Then we will see what can happen.

Italian rugby is enjoying its spell in the limelight with rugbys reputation for good crowd behaviour further boosting its popularity at a time when the countrys favourite sport, football, has been tarnished with scandals and violence.

On Thursday the team and Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) president Giancarlo Dondi are due to meet the countrys prime minister Romano Prodi.

Luca Pancalli, the man brought in to clean up Italian football after the match-fixing scandal, told students: There are many reasons that I envy rugby.

I would like football to take rugby as an example.

Italy will have to do without Mauro Bergamasco, who was suspended after being cited for punching Stephen Jones of Wales.