Italy head coach Fabio Roselli has a tough task on his hands to rouse his players after that painful final-moments defeat to South Africa crushed their quarter-final hopes. However, after a surprisingly meek opening 24-0 loss to France, there’s plenty of motivation for a squad that will desperate to go home with something.
Brazil may not have yet won a RWC 2025 match, but they have certainly acquired a ton of new fans. The cheer when Bianca Silva arced through the France defensive line and raced in from 40m-plus to score the nation’s first ever RWC try was arguably the loudest of the tournament so far. They’ll be hoping for a few more moments like that.
Kick-off: 14:00 BST, Sunday, 7 September
Venue: Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton
If you have a ticket already, make sure you read local legend and former England men’s player Phil Dowson’s Guide to all that Northampton has to offer.
How to watch: Tickets appear to be sold-out for Sunday’s double-header, featuring France v South Africa in the evening. But keep an eye on here, in case any last-minute tickets appear.
Or check out our Global Guide to the TV options in your area.
Italy team:
Italy’s key player: Hooker Vittoria Vecchini was superb in the agonising defeat to South Africa. Try scorer following a deft lineout move, Vecchini then showed off her silky hands by slipping a sweet inside ball for teammate Francesca Sgorbini. She is likely to fancy more tryline action against Brazil.
Brazil team:
Brazil’s key player: It has to be try-scorer extraordinaire Silva. Her record-setting exploits against France have secured her a starting spot on the left wing. The yellow and green in the sell-out crowd will no doubt go crazy every time she touches the ball.
What Italy said:
Italy head coach Fabio Roselli:
“As far as Italy is concerned, it’s very important because we’re coming off a disappointment, not only in the result (loss to South Africa) but also the fact that we weren’t able to play for 80 minutes in the way we wanted to.
“We made it difficult so this is an opportunity to redeem ourselves in some way, obviously with a different objective now, but it’s crucial that the team is able to play the way we want to. That’s important to us.”
Italy captain Elisa Giordano:
“It is really important that these girls have the chance to just play, express themselves, and show what they can do. I’m very happy for all of them.
“It will be a match where Italy has to demonstrate what we can do. They (Brazil) will definitely try to cause us problems in every way possible so we have to be ready and not be surprised by what could happen. If we can do that and add more possession and play in a way we know we can, I’d say we’re there. We can play a good match.”
What Brazil said:
Brazil coach Emiliano Caffera:
“We need more quality ball from the scrum and lineout for our backs to attack off as that is our weapon. The kicking game we also needed to improve a lot, including the kick-and-chase, because in the first two games we didn’t do a good job of that.
“It is the only way to improve. We need to talk to the South American Rugby Union, with World Rugby, we need more games like this throughout the year, not just in the Rugby World Cup. Our 15s team needs to have eight or nine games per year at this level to really improve. We will play our last World Cup game on Sunday, and then maybe not have our next game until April, so it’s going to be tough to improve with only four or five games a year.”
Brazil captain Eshyllen Coimbra:
“This is very important not just for me, but for the entire team, to have this experience, to play at this level for the first time. The closest we got before were the August matches, but I believe everyone is coming back to Brazil with a lot of growth, not just as players, but as people as well. You can feel it.
“Our first collective training session here in England [compared to] today, you can see the difference and how much we’ve grown in these three weeks. It might seem small, but for us it’s been huge.”