Ireland head-coach Adam Griggs says he'll have a better impression of where is team is at after this weekend's Six Nations in association with Guinness clash with Italy.
France inflicted a 41-point defeat on Ireland at Energia Park last Saturday to advance to a final showdown with England, while Griggs side are set to play Italy with third-place on the line.
It's expected that the fixture will be moved from Parma to Dublin due to recent COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions, with the Azzurri aiming to beat Ireland for the third time in four fixtures.
“We’ve looked at the last couple of games we’ve played against Italy, they beat us in their home patch and in October, we beat them," Griggs told reporters at a press conference.
"The way we see this, it’s sets it up nicely to see what our standards are and what our level is going into the summer and into the World Cup qualifiers.
"Obviously they’ll be an opposition for us that we’ll have to come across. It’s a good weekend for us to really see where we’re at."
Italy enjoyed a 21-point win against Scotland in Glasgow last weekend and Griggs wasn't surprised to see them secure second place in Pool A.
“While they didn’t quite show on the scoreboard, they had some really bright patches in their game against a very strong England side
“We definitely want a performance and we believe that if we can perform as well as we know we can, we’ll get the result. Obviously that leaves a marker going into the summer. I think they go hand-in-hand at the moment.
"We’re excited by it and we want to make sure we finish on a high.”
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