Namibia making the early running so far, getting plenty of ball through the hands.

And they earn a penalty through an Italian offside. They will kick for goal here...

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Head to the top of this page and click on the audio icon to listen to live radio commentary of this Pool A match in Saint-Etienne.

Italy are wearing their white change kit, Namibia are in blue.

Not confusing at all...

Here we go!

Image source, Reuters

You know a World Cup has arrived when you hear the Italian national anthem.

It comes with a twist this time, sung by a choir with no instrumental accompaniment. Not quite as spine-tinglingly rousing as usual, but still a great moment.

Land of the Brave, the national anthem of Namibia, is a beautiful tune too.

First fancy dress spot of the day - this Italy fans have arrived in Saint-Etienne dressed as pizzas.

Image source, Getty Images

Plenty of support for Namibia too...

Image source, Getty Images

Game two of the 2023 World Cup is about to get under way in sun-splashed Saint-Etienne.

A reminder of the teams:

Italy XV: Tommaso Allan; Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex, Luca Morisi, Monty Ioane; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Dino Lamb, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (c), Lorenzo Cannone.

Replacements: Epalahame Faiva, Ivan Nemer, Marco Riccioni, David Sisi, Manuel Zuliani, Martin Page-Relo, Paolo Odogwu, Pierre Bruno.

Namibia XV: Divan Rossouw; Gerswin Mouton, Johan Deysel (c), Danco Burger, JC Greyling; Tiaan Swanepoel, Damian Stevens; Desiderius Sethie, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Johan Coetzee, Adriaan Ludick, Tjiuee Uanivi, Wian Conradie, Johan Retief, Richard Hardwick.

Replacements: Louis van der Westhuizen, Jason Benade, Casper Viviers, Tiaan De Klerk, Prince Gaoseb, Jacques Theron, Andre van der Bergh, Le Roux Malan.

With a heatwave crossing Europe right now, World Rugby has confirmed there will be water breaks at all Rugby World Cup matches this weekend.

The breaks will take place midway through both halves at a natural break in play, at the decision of the referee.

With temperatures potentially hitting 32 degrees at Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne today, those water breaks will certainly be needed.

I don't wish to call this a clash of minnows, but according to stats gurus Opta, both of these sides have a less than 0.5% chance of winning this World Cup.

But, as Japan proved when beating South Africa in 2015, Uruguay showed in shocking Fiji in 2019, and both the Fijians and Argentina demonstrated when reaching the 2007 knock-outs, the Rugby World Cup has often seen the underdog have their day.

Tiaan Swanepoel has started three warm-up games for Namibia in the build-up to the World Cup against Argentina XV, Uruguay and Chile, and looks set to be their main man at fly-half in France, earning his fourth cap here.

The 27-year-old played for United Rugby Championship (URC) side the Lions, and started against the Bulls and Stormers at fly-half, making 14 appearances during the 2021-22 season in one of Europe's top leagues.

Image source, Getty Images

Since his debut for Italy in 2020, Paolo Garbisi has been Italy's starting fly-half, with his highlight being kicking the winning conversion against Wales in the 2022 Six Nations, to give Italy their first win since 2015 in the competition.

Since moving to Montpellier in the Top 14, the 23-year-old has developed his kicking and running game to become one of the most talented fly-halves at the World Cup.

He earns his 28th cap today.

Image source, Getty Images

22 Rugby World Cup games played, 22 Rugby World Cup games lost. Namibia are the definition of tournament minnows.

Their only tournament points came in 2019, when their final group game against Canada was cancelled because of a typhoon in Japan.

But this is no longer the nation which was humiliated 142-0 by Australia in 2003, and coach Allister Coetzee is eyeing a historic first World Cup win today.

"The main goal of winning our first ever pool game at a World Cup is massive," Coetzee told BBC Africa Sport.

"We have to aim higher than just going for one win. We have talent here and once the players understand that they play for the country and its people, they can go and make anything happen on the field.

"It is up to the players to use and capitalise on the opportunity."

The closest Namibia came to ending their drought was at the 2015 tournament in England, when they came within a whisker of beating Georgia, eventually losing 17-16 in a closely fought contest in Exeter.

Image source, Getty

Image source, EPA

Italy have been ever-presents at the Rugby World Cup - and equally consistent in their performances.

In all nine tournaments, they have gone out at the group stage. In their last five World Cups, they have won two matches but finished third in their group to miss out on the quarters.

Can they break their hoodoo this time? The real test of that will come against France and New Zealand. Today, it is all about getting at least four points on the board. Preferably five.

With both France and New Zealand also in Pool A, it is easy to dismiss this fixture as a dead rubber before either side has even began their campaign.

Certainly the record books are against this pair. Italy have never made it out of the groups at a World Cup, Namibia have never even won a game.

But if a World Cup is no time for dreaming, then when is? Certainly both sides will need to win today in order to keep alive those dreams of causing a seismic upset.

You can hear more analysis of France's victory over New Zealand and a look ahead to Saturday's matches involving Ireland and England in the latest episode of the Rugby Union Daily podcast on BBC Sounds.

Now, let's turn our attention to Italy and Namibia...

Andrew Mehrtens
Former New Zealand fly-half on BBC Radio 5 Live

We've seen England go to the final after having lost [in the pool phase], we've seen France go to the final in 2011 and come within a whisker of winning it when they lost two pool games.

New Zealand won't be happy with the second half so they'll look at performance, but they'll say we did do some really good things in the first half but we need to be able to break down teams' defence.

Too often they got through several phases and ended up making a mistake - they had twice as many handling errors as France - or they'd get smashed in the tackle.

Paul Grayson
Former England fly-half on BBC Radio 5 Live

When it mattered, France were technically better than the All Blacks. They played a better game plan in the second half, dominated territory and you felt certain that at some point they would come up with something that would make the difference.

What they did do was make very few mistakes, and any they did make, they made close to the New Zealand line because they were at the right end of the pitch for most of the second half.

Before we get going here, let's take a look back at that wonderful opening game on Friday in Paris.

Hosts France were immensely impressive in seeing off New Zealand 27-13 - here's what our experts had to say...

Italy XV: Tommaso Allan; Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex, Luca Morisi, Monty Ioane; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Dino Lamb, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (c), Lorenzo Cannone.

Replacements: Epalahame Faiva, Ivan Nemer, Marco Riccioni, David Sisi, Manuel Zuliani, Martin Page-Relo, Paolo Odogwu, Pierre Bruno.

Namibia XV: Divan Rossouw; Gerswin Mouton, Johan Deysel (c), Danco Burger, JC Greyling; Tiaan Swanepoel, Damian Stevens; Desiderius Sethie, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Johan Coetzee, Adriaan Ludick, Tjiuee Uanivi, Wian Conradie, Johan Retief, Richard Hardwick.

Replacements: Louis van der Westhuizen, Jason Benade, Casper Viviers, Tiaan De Klerk, Prince Gaoseb, Jacques Theron, Andre van der Bergh, Le Roux Malan.

Here's what is planned for the first Saturday of the Rugby World Cup. It should be a doozy...

All kick-off times BST

Italy v Namibia (Pool A, 12.00)

Ireland v Romania (Pool B, 14.30)

Australia v Georgia (Pool C, 17.00)

England v Argentina (Pool D, 20.00)

You can listen to radio commentary and follow live text coverage of all four matches on the BBC Sport website.