Ireland captain Rory Best says his side must use their World Cup warm-up games to build momentum before the tournament begins in late September.

Joe Schmidt's men meet Italy on Saturday before facing England, with home and away fixtures against Wales concluding their preparations.

"It is about making sure that we produce performances," said Best.

"It's important that we treat each of these games as a Test match and we really fire into them."

Heavy defeats by England and Wales in this year's Six Nations came as a major disappointment to Ireland, who came into the tournament following a historic 2018 in which they moved up to second in the world rankings.

"We've gone back to what has served us well," said Best.

"That is taking each day as it comes. In terms of making big proclamations as to where we see ourselves and where we want to get to, it's not us and hasn't been us under Joe."

Over the next five weeks Schmidt will trim his current 43-man panel into his final travelling party of 31 players.

The head coach, who leaves his position following the tournament, will be looking for players to stake a claim for a seat on the plane for Japan over the coming weeks.

"We want guys to put their hand up and say 'i want to be in that squad'," Best said.

"The more competition for places we have the more it will drive us on to be successful and that is what we need to get from these games."

Ireland's World Cup campaign begins in Yokohama against Scotland on 22 September.

They are also joined in Pool A by hosts Japan, Samoa and Russia.