Tiernan O’Halloran grabs bonus point for Emerging Ireland late on

Emerging Ireland 25 Emerging Italy 0

Northampton Saints’ bound JJ Hanrahan was the catalyst for most of what was good about the victory in the opening match of the Tbilisi Cup in Georgia.

The Kerryman has centrally involved in all four tries in Emerging Ireland’s four-try, bonus point victory. He provided the scoring pass for centre Eoin Griffin to cross the Italians’ line after good work from the Irish pack, the outhalf having earlier kicked a penalty to put the Irish team in front.

His beautifully flighted cross-kick allowed wing Andrew Conway to scamper over in the corner, while two minutes later the outhalf, was quick to snaffle a bouncing ball and race 40-metres before sending the supporting Stuart McCloskey cantering over under the posts, a try which Hanrahan converted to give Emerging Ireland a 20-0 lead at the interval.

There was a lack of accuracy to Emerging Ireland’s play that will have frustrated the coaching team of Allen Clarke and Girvan Dempsey but the team did manage to earn a bonus point in the final minutes when following a carry from Hanrahan, the ball was recycled close to the Italian line and fullback Tiernan O’Halloran crossed in the corner.

Clarke admitted: “Scoring the fourth try at the end was important. I was impressed with the way we played in the first half. In the second half we were scrappy. Having said that, we got the crucial bonus point and we didn’t concede so we are pretty satisfied with that aspect of our game.”

Ireland’s next game is against Uruguay at the same venue on Wednesday.

EMERGING IRELAND: T O'Halloran (Connacht); A Conway (Munster), E Griffin (London Irish), S McCloskey (Ulster), M Healy (Connacht); JJ Hanrahan (Northampton), L McGrath (Leinster); D Buckley (Connacht), R Herring (Ulster), S Archer (Munster); B Marshall (Connacht), B Holland (Munster); R Ruddock (Leinster, capt), D Leavy (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster).

Replacements: F Bealham (Connacht) for Archer, E Masterson (Connacht) for Ruddock, D Heffernan (Connacht) for Herring (all 52 mins), A Warwick (Ulster) for Buckley (53 mins), J Cooney (Connacht) for McGrath (59 mins), P Nelson (Ulster) for Conway (61 mins), A Browne (Connacht) for Holland (62 mins), R Scannell (Munster) for McCloskey (66 mins).

EMERGING ITALY: A Chiesa (Calvisano, capt); F Guarducci (Mogliano), R Quartaroli (Viadana), G Massaro (Roma), G di Giulio (Calvisano); C Canna (Roma), S Marinaro (Roma); F Zani (Padova), L Bigi (Padova), G Iacob (Padova); F Ruzza (Viadana), F Gerosa (Viadana); M Corazzi (Mogliano), E Caffini (Rovigo), M Mbanda' (Calvisano).

Replacements: P Ceccarelli (Macon) for Guarducci (21-30 mins), G Benvenuti (Mogliano) for Massaro (32 mins), O Fabiani (Zebre) for Bigi (49 mins), Ceccarelli for Iacob (50 mins), G di Stefano (Roma) for Zani (55 mins), S Negri (Hartpury) for Canna (60 mins), A Zdrilich (Calvisano) for Caffini (61 mins), Canna for Corazzi (62 mins), M Amenta (Roma) for Gerosa (72 mins).

Referee: M Raynal (France).