Six Nations: Italy 17 Ireland 22
Whew! The bonus-point win that Ireland required, at a minimum, was duly achieved, so earning a lap of honour by the retiring Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray et al in front of the estimated 30,000 or supporters clad in green and a rendition of The Fields revived memories of the World Cup on a balmy Roman afternoon.
All concerned could celebrate long in the night, although the sense of anti-climax after last week’s beating at the hands of France was, if anything, compounded. For this was nothing like the statement win which they had sought, and needed, in order to heal the scars from a week ago.
The intentions and desire were there, but not the accuracy, as Ireland too often forced things and committed too many errors to establish anything like the attacking rhythm and control we have become used to over recent years.
While there was an evident determination to play with the right attacking shape and structure, despite the promise of the opening win over England this team’s skill levels and execution have fallen off a tad alarmingly. Their body language betrayed a loss of confidence as a result of a week ago and they looked particularly impotent when their ruck ball was slowed down.
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Officiating blunder on James Lowe pass led to fraught endgame for Ireland
Ultimately, they were indebted to their maul, a 20-mintue hat-trick aby the remarkable Dan Sheehan – the Six Nations’ most prolific try-scoring forward of all time – and, though he won’t enjoy the video of two of Italy’s tries, the all-encompassing performance of Mack Hansen.
In actual fact, an ambitious Italy looked the more zestful and confident side and, ultimately, Ireland did not enhance their points differential sufficiently to better England’s, meaning a third successive title depended on favours from Wales and Scotland.
Setting the tone of the day, Ireland were initially punished for an error-strewn first quarter by an inventively worked Italian try which has become something of a trademark in this championship. Jamison Gibson-Park retrieved loose ruck ball in sniping back infield and passed straight to Danilo Fischetti, and although Robbie Henshaw beat Ange Capuozzo to the loosehead’s punt, Italy struck from Jack Crowley’s ensuing goal-line restart.
[ Italy 17 Ireland 22: How the Irish players rated in RomeOpens in new window ]
Lorenzo Cannone ran it back, and Italy went wide right to Capuozzo and then Dino Lamb up the middle again before the Juan Ignacio Brex-Tommaso Menoncello combination struck. Menoncello gathered Brex’s long pass to beat Hansen’s tackle when he shot out of the line and also slip Garry Ringrose before offloading out of Andrew Porter’s tackle. The supporting Paolo Garbisi perfectly weighted his grubber for Monty Ioane to finish in the corner. What’s more the recalled Tommaso Allan landed the touchline conversion.
Menoncello soon beat Henshaw on the inside off a delayed, disguised short ball from Brex and then had his midfield partner in support before Cannone knocked on from the recycle.
Ireland finally generated a head of steam, albeit there was a bluntness about their power plays as Finlay Bealham had a finish ruled out for a double movement – triple movement really. But after another fruitless sequence of forward rumbles, Bealham’s strong tighthead five-metre scrum led to Crowley deftly pulling the ball back for Hugo Keenan’s well-timed run and the fullback beat Brex to score. Crowley’s conversion brought the sides level.
Amid echoes of Ireland’s defeat here in 2013, but with the shoe on the other foot, Italy lost Lamb, Lorenzo Cannone and Sebastian Negri by the half-hour mark, albeit they were grateful for their 6-2 split.
Even so, Italy remained the more dangerous-looking side, and in the build-up to Ireland’s third goal-line restart from an Italian kick ahead, Gibson-Park bought a dummy from Martin Page-Relo hook, line and sinker but his pass did not go to hand.
Allan also landed a 45-metre plus penalty with the angle after Ringrose had rather blatantly played the ball from an offside position, his error of judgment was put in the halfpenny place when the demoted Italian captain, Michele Lamarro, slapped the ball from Gibson-Park while part of a ruck. He was yellow carded for his rash moment, throwing his mouth guard on to the ground in self-disgust.
To compound his shame, Crowley tapped the penalty into the corner, and Sheehan hit Tadhg Beirne before joining the maul which, helped by Henshaw joining in, rumbled over the line for the hooker to score. Crowley hooked a kickable conversion to leave the away team and supporters alike grateful for a 12-10 interval lead.
They looked to exploit their numerical advantage on the resumption, although Gibson-Park was again guilty of forcing matters with a long pass to James Lowe which went over the winger’s head into touch.
Still, they found some rhythm after Lowe reclaimed a Gibson-Park box kick, although Crowley couldn’t link with Sheehan on the edge and James Ryan was denied by Danilo Fischetti after a loose pass from Caelan Doris. But Ireland were playing with a penalty advantage, so cue the introduction of Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy, and a reprise of the catch-and-drive, as this time Sheehan hit Jack Conan before being driven over.
To compound Italian woes, replacement Ross Vintcent caught Keenan head-on-head when the fullback gathered the restart, and his yellow was subsequently upgraded to a 20-minute red.
A thunderous roar greeted the camera panning on a slightly sheepish O’Mahony and Crowley then appeared to set up Keenan a second time but the score was ruled out when replays showed Doris had knocked the ball forward. Even so, Sheehan was soon rampaging infield from another lineout launch play, and after a carry by Ringrose, kick-passed to Hansen on the touchline for him to catch and tap the ball down for Sheehan to complete his hat-trick and secure the bonus point.
Crowley missed his third conversion in a row, misses which were compounded when Stephen Varney’s long pass reached Capuozzo on the edge as Lowe shot out of the line. The fleet-footed Italian winger beat Crowley’s tackle and chipped Keenan, the bounding ball eluded the covering Hansen and Capuozzo for Varney to score.
In contrast to Crowley, Allan again converted, and that was the cue for Sam Prendergast, and soon after the rest of the bench, including Conor Murray.
Truly awful officiating by assistant referee Morné Ferreira, TMO Andrew Jackson and Luke Pearce wrongly ruled out another Keenan ‘try’ when replays clearly demonstrated Lowe had thrice flirted within an inch of the touchline but had kept his feet infield before offloading to his fullback.
The home fans were the louder and more excited in the endgame, as Leonardo Marin made ground up the touchline before the pressure was lifted by a Lowe intercept. Ireland had one final reprieve when Bundee Aki’s tackle did enough to make Capuozzo stumble as his offload on the edge eluded Menoncello, although replays highlighted a cheap head shot by Giacomo Nicotera on O’Mahony to earn Italy another yellow card, which was also upgraded to red.
With that, Prendergast kicked the final penalty dead. O’Mahony and Murray are the last survivors from that sole loss to Italy a dozen years ago and at least the retiring centurions could sign off in Rome with a win.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 11 mins: Ioane try, Allan con, 7-0; 23: Keenan try, Crowley con, 7-7; 33: Allan pen, 10-7; 40: Sheehan try, 10-12; (half-time: 10-12); 46: Sheehan try, 10-17; 58: Sheenan try, 10-22; 62: Varney try, Allan con, 17-22.
ITALY: Tommaso Allan; Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex (capt), Tommaso Menoncello, Monty Ioane; Paolo Garbisi, Martin Page-Relo, Danilo Fischetti, Gianmarco Lucchesi; Dino Lamb, Fedrico Ruzza; Sebastian Negri, Manuel Zuliani, Lorenze Cannone.
Replacements: Niccolo Cannone for Lamb (18 mins); Ross Vintcent for Lorenze Cannone, Michele Lamaro for Negri (both 29); Stephen Varney for Page-Relo (45); Mirco Spagnolo for Fischetti, Giosue Zilocchi for Ferrari (both 55); Giacomo Nicotera for Vintcent (69); Leonado Marin for Ioane (75).
Yellow card: Lamaro (39 mins).
Red card: Vintcent (49 mins), Nicotera (80).
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Mack Hansen (Connacht), Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster), James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht); James Ryan (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster); Jack Conan (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Caelan Doris (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: Joe McCarthy (Leinster) for Ryan, Tadhg Furlong (Leinster) for Bealham (both 46 mins); Peter O’Mahony (Munster) for Van der Flier (51); Bundee Aki (Connacht) for Henshaw (55); Sam Prendergast (Leinster) for Crowley, Jack Boyle (Leinster) for Porter (both 64); Conor Murray (Munster) for Gibson-Park (66); Gus McCarthy (Leinster) for Sheehan (71).
Referee: Luke Pearce (England).
