Ireland 16 – 11 Italy

Hmmmm. What can we say, it was exactly as I predicted at Croke Park, this can’t have helped the mood in the Ireland camp, a win is a win, but this was a battle.

A penalty in the 15th minutes, followed by a try in 18th minute as O’Gara delivered a crossfield ball to Trimble who then laid off to Dempsey to go over, O’Gara converted to reach his 400 points in the Six Nations

D’Arcy went off after 26 minutes after injuring his arm in the tackle, Kearney came on as winger and Trimble moved to inside centre.

With D’Arcy’s departure came the Azzuri fightback, and a kicking game deep into Ireland’s half. Even reduced to 14 men after Santiago Dellape’s sin-binning the Italians defended strongly, and eventually produced a penalty for themselves.

HT: Ireland 10 – 3 Italy

Shortly after the restart Ireland had their own taste of being a man down for 10 minutes as Easterby was sin-binned for playing the ball after the tackle.

Cynical play by the Italians against Irish attacks were eventually punished by Kaplan, allowing O’Gara to make it 13-3.

A physical Italy finally got their first try on the hour, Parisse was the try after lengthy deliberation by the video judge, the conversion went wide – but Ireland were worried with only 5 points in it (13-8).

O’Gara landed a penalty after a handling offence on the floor, opening the gap to 16-8. Only for Bortolussi to come a little close for comfort making it 16-11.

The 80 minutes came and went as the Italians tried to keep control of the ball and run it in for a victory, eventually it was cleared away for an Irish victory.

FT Ireland 16 – 11 Italy

Italy looked good and physical and will be relishing a chance to host a very shaky England team next week, whereas Ireland have a lot of work to do before they walk into Stade de France to face the French.

Ireland (10) 16
Try: Dempsey
Con: O’Gara
Pens: O’Gara (3)

Italy (3) 11
Try: Parisse
Pens: Bertolussi (2)

Tags: Six Nations
February 2nd, 2008 | Posted in Six Nations | 1 Comment »