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Sun 8 Feb 2015 | 12:16
Ireland break down Italy in second half for comfortable Rome win

8
Comments

Six Nations 2014 champions Ireland got their defence off to a stuttery start in Rome, winning comfortably 26-3 but failing to fire for most of the match. Two tries in three minutes, against 14 men, proved enough to hold off the spirited Italians.

The visiting Irish side, who beat the likes of South Africa in November, took over an hour to score a try in Rome, despite dominating with 63% territory and possession. Italy's defensive effort was superb, and it took a yellow card to break things down after the hour mark. 

"We showed great quality in the defensive phase," said Italy's coach Jacques Brunel. 

"But.. it's impossible to win with so little possession. Certainly, the main issue today was the lineout. Our scrum is at or even better than Ireland's level."

Conor Murray and Tommy O'Donnell scored a try apiece while Ian Keatley kicked 14 points.

The victory for Ireland was their eighth successive Test win for the first time since 2009, but they will need to work on their error count when hosting France next weekend.

"It was a slog, but I don't know if it was that frustrating. Any time you come to Rome that's exactly what you're expecting - a slog," said fullback Rob Kearney. "We knew that if we just kept chipping away and trying to build some phases that eventually we would break them down."

View official extended highlights below, and more in the Video Hub

Posted By: Grant Constable

8 Comments

  • flanker2712
    2:43 PM 12/02/2015

    Nacho

    If that's a "pretty clear" obstruction by Boss (number 21), every rugby game would just be a series of penalties!

    I wonder whether you are referring to the movement by Madigan (number 22) just after the kick. He leans his body into Parisse with no intent or hope of doing anything other than getting in his way. But again, we see that sort of thing all the time in games and to give a penalty try there would be very harsh.

    Regarding the knock on, at 0:42 and 0:53 in the video Nacho posted, you can see the trajectory of the ball change slightly as it glances Parisse's finger tips.

  • 10:59 AM 12/02/2015

    Let's not forget that Schmidt is not going to waste his playbook with France and England looming!

  • 10:58 AM 12/02/2015

    I'm an Irish man living in Italy and frankly I'm as tired as a man can be with this victim mentality. Italian rugby won't improve until a viable underage system is put in place, end of! Masi at full back? Please, come on.

    Nacho, 21 (Isacc Boss) looked at Parisse but was in contention for the ball at point of contact. Of course you have to throw your body in there if you hope to hold onto the ball with someone like Parisse going for it! Penalty try? Please!

    That said I think the try should have been awarded, when looking at the ball it doesn't even stop rotating so I don't see how they can say Parisse touched it.

    Bad decision, but by the TMO, not the ref.

  • flanker2712
    1:05 PM 09/02/2015

    I maybe going against popular opinion, but I was very pleased by Ireland's performance. Of course final table positions show Italy is the weakest team in the competition, but (ignoring the game against England last year when England were chasing points) it has been a while since Italy have suffered a heavy defeat at home. While fans, media and likely coaches and players may expect to win in Rome, it is unlikely to be an easy win.

    Ireland had key players missing from the squad (Sexton, Healy, Heaslip) and then lost O'Brien in the warm-up, but their replacements played well and suggest strength in depth that has not always been available to the coach.

    The centre pairing has less than a handful of caps between them but showed promise.

    Ireland's performance was disciplined. They wore Italy down when they needed to and when the opportunity arose they were clinical enough to put the game out of reach.

    Of course there were errors, of course there are areas to improve, but all in all for a first outing I think Irish supporters should be happy.

  • kadova
    7:37 PM 08/02/2015

    Parisse is talkative, and he's the captain, He can speak to the referee if he wants.
    About your video:
    The referee was refusing at first to give the reason for the red card, so Parisse kept asking him.
    This referee was a shame during the whole match. It was found out later that Parisse could not have insulted him, because the referee claimed he was insulting him in english but Parisse was speaking in italian to him (before the red card). These languages not sounding the same at all, the referee was just lying. And later on in the video, the referee gives Parisse team a try that was invalid, like a compensation for his wrong red card. One of the club managers (Etcheto) was furious about this try. And at the end of the video, another player from Parisse club just said the referee was wrong with giving them the try as he was wrong in giving Parisse the red card.

    In case of you're wondering, i'm not Italian, i'm French.

  • drg
    5:58 PM 08/02/2015

    Personally thought seeing Italy with a potential playmaker was actually fairly exciting... even if the game did seem to run away towards the end...

  • reality
    5:38 PM 08/02/2015

    Has Andrea Masi been taking matador classes? I remembered him as being a pretty reliable player.

  • 10stonenumber10
    3:34 PM 08/02/2015

    That red card was just after Italy had beaten France, and was halved on appeal. He disagreed with the decision, but still walked off the field as he was instructed to, then was filmed remonstrating with his team mates and back room staff. Unfortunately, if you're going to lead a team like Italy whilst being the (then) standout northern hemisphere 8, and run a one man show in dire circumstances as often he does, you need some anger. I'm not condoning the actions, but the aggression was understandable, and controlled. As Italian number 8s go, Dallaglio was much worse with the chat, and english insults/swearing is much more obvious to the casual observer.

    Otherwise, it was test match rugby. Credit where credit is due, Italy are a very tough team to beat, and we finally seem to have found a somewhat consistent halfback pairing. Ireland ground it out and ran away with it at the end.

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