Ireland Under-20 39 Italy Under-20 0:IT WAS encouraging at Dubarry Park last night that Ireland could ease their way to victory in their opening game of the Under-20 Six Nations and display clear room for improvement.
Allen Clarke’s men will face much tougher opposition this season – starting in the south of France next weekend – but a six tries to nil win will boost confidence.
Ireland led 13-0 at the break but really should have been out of sight after a first-half of almost total dominance.
Ireland took the game to the Italians up front and once the forward battle was won in the opening quarter – twice the Italians were shoved off their own scrum to ram home the message – it was really only a matter of time before Clarke’s men pulled away.
James McKinney did not bring his kicking boots in the opening half and while he got Ireland off the mark with a seventh minute penalty, he missed the target with three other kicks.
Two of them were conversion attempts but the double try haul was poor return for the attacking forays, with a lack of killer instinct rather than outstanding defending the main reason the scores were not chalked up.
The exciting running of centres Brendan Macken and Nevin Spence provided the decent-size crowd with plenty of entertainment in the opening period.
But it was a superb break from flanker Dominic Ryan down the left which created the first try and while he was stopped in his tracks, Darren Hudson had come over from his wing to pick and dive over. The pace of left winger Simon Zebo should have yielded a second try after 28 minutes, while a couple of minutes later Macken was guilty of a forward pass as he put Hudson over after a fine move.
But the pressure eventually told and Spence got in for their second try seven minutes from the break as the stretched Italian defence was opened by swift ball from the half-backs McKinney and John Cooney to send him over.
McKinney missed the conversion in front of the posts but made amends two minutes after the restart with a superb touchline conversion after Zebo barged over in the left corner.
Hudson got his third try off a good lineout move after 53 minutes and he completed his hat-trick four minutes from time after fullback Andrew Conway had made the opening.
But the try of the night came in stoppage time when Macken crowned a fine display with a break from 10 metres which left a trail of defenders in his track before jinking his way to touch down under the posts.
IRELAND:A Conway (Blackrock, Leinster); D Hudson (St Mary's, Leinster), B Macken (Blackrock, Leinster), N Spence (Ballynahinch, Ulster), S Zebo (Cork Constitution, Munster); J McKinney (Queen's University, Ulster), J Cooney (UCD , Leinster); B Cagney (UCC, Munster), N Annett (Belfast Harlequins, Ulster), J O'Connell (Lansdowne, Leinster), D O'Callaghan (UCC, Munster), B Marshall (UCD, Leinster), R Ruddock (UCD, Leinster), D Ryan (Lansdowne, Leinster), P Butler (Shannon, Munster). Replacements:R O'Sullivan for Ryan (44 mins), E Griffin for Zebo (57 mins), B Kingston for McKinney (60 mins), D Doyle for Annett (61 mins), S Maguire or O'Connell (63 mins), Brian Hayes for O'Callaghan (66 mins), M Heaney for Cooney (70 mins).
ITALY:R Trevisan; G Venditti, T Benvenuti, S Rodwell, G Alberghini; T Iannone, E Gori; C Fazzari, N Corbanese, Francesco Pepoli, E Targa, L Santelli, N Belardo, F Ferrarini, G Cicchinelli. Replacements:A Denti for Pepoli, A Chillon for Gori, F Menon for Benvenuti (all half-time), F Cazzola for Santelli (59 mins), M Mortali for Venditti (70 mins), E Lubian for Targa (76 mins).
Referee: L Hodges(Wales).
