A INTERNATIONAL: Italy ... 11 Ireland ... 28Ireland eventually put away a dogged Italian side in a stop-start game, accentuated by a 20-minute delay when floodlights failed on 60 minutes.
This was the Italian's first A match and Ireland put them on the back foot from the off with a fine series of opening attacks.
Gordon D'Arcy, Eric Miller and Jeremy Staunton linked well but the ball was spilled on the opposing five-metre line.
A fine surge from the pack saw Andrea Lo Cicero deliberately collapse and Barry Everitt kicked his first penalty on four minutes.
The restart saw no let-up and the Irish backs continually made forays across the gain line, only for Italian hands to kill quick advantage.
David Quinlan, Jeremy Davidson and Miller put in some hard yards before Simon Easterby broke free on the left.
Easterby sold a dummy and side-stepped a couple of defenders to cross wide on the left. Everitt's conversion came back off the upright.
Everitt added another penalty in the 25th minute following yet another Italian infringement.
Miller, who had featured prominently, had to retire with a lower back strain on the half hour to be replaced by Aidan McCullen.
The Italians managed just two attacks into the Irish 22 in the first half. German Cagnolo kicked a penalty, given for an Irish midfield offside, on 32 minutes.
Strong Irish defence saw off an Italian rolling maul just at the half-time whistle, to leave the score 11-3.
Again the Irish team started brightly and an attack down the left saw another encroachment. This time Welsh referee rightly carded Italian second row Enrico Pavanello. Everitt kicked the penalty.
Despite being down to 14 men, Italy rallied and worked their way downfield. Cagnolo kicked a penalty following a try-saving tackle from McCullen.
Then the defences took over and a number of handling errors saw the game lose its handling impetus. If this was bad, floodlight failure in the 60th minute saw both sides return to the dressing rooms for 20 minutes.
Once power was restored Ireland restarted well. Italian flanker Salvatore Garozzo was sin-binned on 70 minutes and this time Ireland punished the Italians with two tries.
Ted Robinson scored under the posts on 72 minutes and D'Arcy crossed three minutes later, both coverted by Everitt.
Just on the whistle, full back Francesco followed up two huge kicks upfield by Andrea Benatti to score out wide on the right.
The conversion sailed wide and Ireland continued their unbeaten run against the Italians.
Not an illuminating match in more ways than one.
IRELAND A: J Staunton (Cunningham 60); J Topping (Lawlor 76), G D'Arcy, D Quinlan, T Robinson; B Everitt, N Doak capt (O'Meara 65); J Fitzpatrick, P Shields (Blaney 76), S Best (Bracken 75), D O'Callaghan, J Davidson (O'Driscoll 67), S Easterby, K Dawson, E Miller (McCullen 30).
ITALY A: M Francesco; M Ravazzolo, A Masi, C Zanoletti, R Pedrazzi; G Cagnolo, M Mazzantini; A Locicero, F Ongaro, C Nieto, F Minello, E Pavanello, S Garozzo, A Benatti, M Zaffiri.
