British & Irish Lions
• British & Irish Lions tour Australia in 2013
Ireland Rugby
6N: Italy 9 – 38 Ireland
Ireland go to the top of the RBS 6 Nations Championship table today after a five-try victory over Italy at Stadio Flaminio.
Although Ireland racked-up the error count and had a poor first half performance they came back in the second half to eases to a large points victory.
Tempers frayed just 40 seconds into the match, a clothes-line tackle on Rob Kearney earned Andrea Masi a yellow card. The Italy defence stood up despite the one man advantage and when Wallace was penalised for holding on McLean booted Italy three points ahead.
Italy 3 – 0 Ireland
Ronan O’Gara seemed to be hindered by the wind and kicking was poor, leading him to turn down two long-range shots that are normally well within his reach and go for touch. Fortunately Kearney, O’Connell and Stephen Ferris were all making ground.
The Italians pulled apart both of Ireland’s line-outs and Sergio Parrise got one steal, only for Mclean to land another three points as Italy capitalised on Ireland’s errors.
Italy 6 – 0 Ireland
In the 19th minute Italy made their own mistake, a promising line-out attack was undone when Bowe slipped in to intercept the pass that should have been for Mirco Bergemasco. Chased by three Italians Bowe raced for the line and crossed it with Kaine Robertson practically on top of him! O’Gara converted.
Italy 6 – 7 Ireland
Italy continued to apply pressure and were rewarded with yet another McLean penalty pushing Ireland behind again.
Italy 9 – 7 Ireland
Gonzalo Canale charged down an O’Gara clearance, and as O’Gara tackled him he was without the ball, resulting in a yellow card for O’Gara. It wasn’t long before Slavatore Perugini joined O’Gara on the sidelines for infringing at the line-out.
Italy finally cracked again on the stroke of half time after 19 phases of Ireland pressure, a surge by Ferris who was tackled and offloaded to Luke Fitzgerald saw Fitzgerald dash home from eight metres out, and Kearney converted.
HT: Italy 9 – 14 Ireland
The second half started in much the same way with Ireland knocking on the Italian door, piling on the pressure. Heaslip was hauled down on the line after a classic O’Driscoll offload. Bowe tried to wriggle over, and eventually the pressure told and David Wallace managed to pick a line through the defence, O’Gara converted.
Italy 9 – 21 Ireland
Italy looked like they have little left to give in attacking play and O’Gara landed his first penalty of the game going into the last quarter.
Italy 9 – 24 Ireland
With five minutes to go Ireland burst into life again, Luke Fitzgerald and Gordon D’Arcy combining in quick line-out sending Fitzgerald in for a second. O’Gara again converting.
Italy 9 – 31 Ireland
Within two minutes O’Driscoll caught and intercept and streaked the length of the field to seal the victory.
FT: Italy 9 – 38 Ireland
O’Driscoll was clearly pleased with the patience the team showed even though the Ireland performance was far from special:
We’re happy to have won. The scoreline may flatter us but we’ll take anything we can get,’
‘It’s pleasing that things didn’t start well for us but the longer the game went on the better we got.
‘We were patient and knew we’d have to wait to break them down before taking our opportunities.
‘They didn’t score a try and that’s because of our defence, not because of their lack of ability. Things didn’t click for them today.’
Ireland are two out of two now, and we can’t really ask for much more than that but a stern test will await them at Croke Park in a fortnight with a down and out England wanting revenge.