After try famine in Paris a feast against Italy
10 Feb 2018
Ireland enjoyed an eight-try buffet at Italy’s expense, although it did come at considerable cost, injuries to Robbie Henshaw and Tadhg Furlong, two of their more influential players, potentially ruling them out of bigger games to come. Henshaw appeared to injure his shoulder pretty badly as he dived over for Ireland’s fifth score, heading off with an oxygen mask clamped to his face. Schmidt said they would know more after a scan but Henshaw’s NatWest Six Nations could well be over. Still, this was more like it from Ireland, who more than made up for the fact that they did not manage a single clean break against France. On home soil, they racked up eight tries and nine clean breaks off 63 per cent possession and 65 per cent territory. They only conceded three penalties, too.
It was, as ever, difficult to know to what extent that statistical dominance was down to Italy’s ineptitude and to what extent Irish brilliance. Sergio Parisse, Italy’s talismanic captain, put forward the case for the latter. “Ireland play much better rugby than England,” Parisse said, simply. “It’s much more difficult to defend.” Italy still had themselves to blame for so much of this thrashing, though. They had managed to keep England honest for an hour or so at the Stadio Olimpico. But they allowed Ireland to secure their four-try bonus point after just 35 minutes. In truth, the game was over as a contest well before that. Schmidt will not have been totally pleased with his afternoon either. Aside from the injuries, he will be disappointed with the way Ireland switched off late in the game, allowing Italy to score three tries of their own.
Ireland began the game well. Their attacking shape looked good from the off. The first try took 10 minutes to arrive, Henshaw bursting through the Italy back-line from close-range after Jacob Stockdale had been held up. Tries two, three and four followed in quick succession, Conor Murray, Bundee Aki and Keith Earls all crossing within the first 35 minutes, the first of those an absolute peach which saw Ireland’s scrum half loop off Dan Leavy before scampering over to the left wing to collect a pass from Jack Conan who had himself cut in off the left hand touchline.
The second half began with much of the same, Henshaw taking advantage of a loose pass from Sergio Parisse to race clear from 35 metres, only to injure himself in the process. That at least brought Jordan Larmour – Leinster’s exciting young prospect – into the game. The 20-year-old did not manage to mark his debut with a try, but he showed wonderful footwork at one point to burst clear, bringing the Aviva Stadium to its collective feet. Rory Best was bundled over from a powerful driving maul before Italy belatedly got themselves on the scoreboard after 55mins, Tommaso Allan diving over after Dan Leavy’s missed tackle on Tommaso Castello. Jacob Stockdale managed a quickfire brace, the first from close range after a clever screen pass from Bundee Aki, the second a long-range effort as he showed substitute Jayden Hayward a clean pair of heels.
James Ryan was impressive in the Irish boiler-house last week but drops out of the squad altogether due to a knock, leaving the door open for lineout specialist Devin Toner to return, freeing up Iain Henderson from any responsibility there so he can focus on smacking opposition. Which will be needed. Last week Tommaso Boni was hyperactive in attack, with the centre proving difficult to shepherd into a typical running line or bring down straight away. With Tommaso Allan playing close to the gain-line and looking happy to pass flat, over or under players, and with Tommaso Castello always chuffed to run a direct line and tie up tacklers, there should be plenty of moving targets.
But Schmidt will not have enjoyed Edoardo Gori scampering in for a second after Sergio Parisse’s looped pass infield. Or full back Matteo Minozzi’s late effort in the corner after a fine back-line move. “I was really happy with way we started,” he said. “We played with some good width and scored some really good tries in the first-half
