Today see's Ireland's Junior Men get their 2019 World Roller Games campaign started; their first ever international game, and the tests don't come much bigger than Italy.

Ireland have been in Barcelona since Tuesday in order to get a couple extra days of preparation in to ensure their are ready for their international debut.

We caught up with players; Patrik Keyes and Andrew Cremin on their thoughts on preparations and looking ahead to the Italy game. There's been a beat of a heatwave across Europe this week so getting out early has been really useful; Patrik Keyes, "We're not used to the heat here but the training camp the past few days has really help us to cope with the heat and get used to it." The players seem excited to get going and can't wait for a big test today; Andrew Cremin, "Italy are one of the favourites for the title; a really top side and I think just putting a really hard shift against them and see how it goes."

ITALY

Placement at 2018 World Championships: 2nd

Since 2015 Italy have picked up 2 bronze & 2 silver medals and will be looking to go for that elusive gold medal this time out and help Italy finish a top the Roller Games medal table.

Roster:

RIGONI Rudy - Asiago Black Out
CUSIN Federico - Real Torino
MARANO Luca - Invicta Modena
PERINI Luca - CUS Verona 
PERTILE Giovanni - Asiago Newts 
FORTE Michele - Asiago Black Out 
ZAGO Matteo - Asiago Black Out 
DEGANO Nicolò - Edera Trieste
COCOZZA Axel - Edera Trieste
FRANCON Matteo Carlo - Ghosts Padova
LAGO Edoardo - HP Cittadella
ZAMPIERI Samuele - Raiders Montebelluna
ROSSI Alessandro - HP Cittadella
BIONDI Luca - Real Torino
SPIMPOLO Gabriel - Real Torino
CAMPOS Marco-  Asiago Black Out 

Coach: RIGONI Luca

HOW TO FOLLOW

Where: CEM Horta

Face-off time: 12 noon local (11am Irish)

Unfortunately there looks to be no stream of the early rounds in the Junior Men competition, if this change we will of course share.

Live Stats: http://www.inlinehockey.wrg2019.com/league/18

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/inlinehockeyireland/