Best: Wants home 'fortress'

Wooden-spoon favourites Italy visit Dublin armed with the belief they can secure a first victory over the Irish in the Six Nations.

Strengthening their resolve is the knowledge Ireland have won just three times in nine matches since relocating to their rebuilt home at Lansdowne Road in November 2010.

Best has added to his voice to the growing chorus of players determined to transform the Aviva Stadium into a fortress.

"We're not happy with our home record and it's something we've talked about," the Ulster hooker said. "You could argue the toss and say we've been unlucky in a few games, but the bottom line is it's three from nine.

"Given the players we have and the way we feel about the stadium, that's not good enough and we know that.

"It's something we want to address, but we can only do that one game at a time.

"Hopefully as time goes by we'll rectify that record and it will start to look a lot more favourable.

"The stadium and the set-up are magnificent and everyone loves playing there.

"But for whatever reason we've lost out in some of the tight games, such as against Wales three weeks ago."

Ireland have been inactive since February 5, when they lost 23-21 to Wales, thanks to the weather-enforced postponement of their game against France.

Dispatching Italy will enable them to nudge their campaign back on track before heading to Paris on Sunday week for what will be the pivotal encounter of their Six Nations.

"It feels like an eternity since we've played Wales," said Best. "With the rearranged game it's taken us longer to get back on the pitch.

"There's a certain level of expectation inside this squad. We have standards that we want to reach.

"We'll give Italy the respect they deserve, but it's also about getting ourselves right.

"We know Italy are strong in the scrum but we feel our scrum has come a long way over the last two years. We see it as a strength of ours now."

Teams:

Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), K Earls (Munster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster, capt), S Ferris (Ulster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).

Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), T Court (Ulster), D Ryan (Munster), P O'Mahony (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O'Gara (Munster), F McFadden (Leinster).

Italy: A Masi (Aironi); G Venditti (Aironi), T Benvenuti (Treviso), A Sgarbi (Treviso), L McLean (Treviso); L Botes (Treviso), E Gori (Treviso); M Rizzo (Treviso), L Ghiraldini (Treviso), L Cittadini (Treviso), Q Geldenhuys (Aironi), M Bortolami (Aironi), A Zanni (Treviso), R Barbieri (Treviso), S Parisse (Stade Francais, capt).

Replacements: T D'Apice (Aironi), F Staibano (Aironi), A Pavanello (Treviso), S Favaro (Aironi), F Semenzato (Treviso), K Burton (Treviso), G Canale (Clermont Auvergne).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).

Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales) and David Changleng (Scotland).