1 year ago
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33 mins. Ireland have secured a long lease on the Italy 22 in these last minutes of the half. More drives at the Italy line are contained by the blue defence, but inevitably they drift offside and will have to contain more green possession close to the line.
31 mins. From the lineout, Ireland are battering the Italy line with big forward carries that the Azzuri defence repel before Porter runs into his own player to give away a penalty. Italy will take some heart from actually stopping a try on an Ireland 22 entry for the first time.
Luca Bigi comes on for Italy as Giacomo Nicotera needs and HIA.
28 mins. In a shocking development, Italy actually catch and drive a lineout on the Ireland 10m line, with the maul making some decent grount. But once again, the control of the technical breakdown details desert the home side and Casey snaffles the ball as it pops out of the ruck.
He runs into Niccolo Cannone as he chases his own and it looks like the Italian lock has maybe stepped across him and shouldered the little scrum half. Ref Mike Adamson has a look at it, and thinks is nothing more than an obstruction pen.
Harsh decision that, for me.
24 mins. James Lowe mangles gathering a pass deep in his 22, which gives the Italian pack a chance to give the Irish eight a right old shove from a scrum five. Ireland hold them steady and the attack up the right from Italy is a bit lumpen and they lose it at the ruck.
TRY! Italy 10 - 19 Ireland (Bundee Aki)
20 mins. As good as Italy are with ball in hand, Ireland are one better with pretty much every possession gleaning points. The speed of Irish ball has the home side in all sorts of bother in defence, this time working a four on two on the left touchline which Aki finishes in the corner.
Byrne curves a cracker of conversion over from way out west.
PENALTY! Italy 10 - 13 Ireland (Paolo Garbisi)
17 mins. The home side will not be cowed and go straight back to running everything, this time Capuozzo lateral in how own half before flinging a pass to Menoncello who absolutely gasses Ross Byrnes to chip it forward. The kick is covered by Casey, but it’s an Italy penalty for Hansen bunting Menoncello late after his kick.
Garbisi calls for the tee and the kick is good.
TRY! Italy 7 - 12 Ireland (Hugo Keenan)
13 mins. More delicious Italian running patterns nearly put Bruno away up the left touchline, but he puts a foot out. Ireland decide it’s time to show what they can do on first phases as nearly the entire backline handle the ball to put Keenan into space who pirouettes through a couple of tackles to score.
Byrne slots two points from in front.
10 mins. From a lineout Italy run a beautifully timed first phase pattern to that man Lorenzo Cannone again, who hits a glorious angle to carry the ball 30 metres into the Ireland 22. The recycling is imprecise which takes the momentum out of the attack and Porter eventually gets a turnover.
Cannone is cutting though Ireland’s midfield like a volcanic heat knife through pre-melted butter.
TRY! Italy 7 - 5 Ireland (Stephen Varney)
6 mins. It’s finally time for Italy to have some possession in the Ireland half and they go wide left from a quick tap. Bruno has a bit of space then his pass off the ground is fumbled by Capuozzo. Byrne kicks poorly and on the counter-attack Italy go left then right for Cannone to have a massive run up to the line and Varney dives over from the base of the ruck.
Garbisi converts.
Good lord!
TRY! Italy 0 - 7 Ireland (James Ryan)
2 mins. Ireland receive another poor kick, Aki forces through two tacklers and offloads one-handed to Ryan who makes no mistake with the finish.
Poor defending, you have to say.
Byrne misses the conversion.
NO TRY! Italy 0 - 0 Ireland (James Lowe)
1 min. Italy settle into a familiar pattern of running some phases around their 22 that go not very far before Garbisi clears it. Ireland return the ball up the left hand side, via Van Der Flier running free, popping to Keenan who feeds Lowe to gallop for the corner.
Capuozzo covers across and Lowe can’t ground cleanly, according to the TMO.
Kick Off!
Ross Byrne has the ball and he boots us into action.
We’ve just had an “Ireland’s Call” the likes of which we’ve never witnessed, and not in a good way.
Imagine a vaudeville band, bladdered on bathtub gin, honking their instruments while the people singing have literally no idea where the song is up to.
The teams are out under a cloudy but dry Rome sky; they’ll settle in for the anthems and we’ll soon have a game.
Pre match reading…
All the talk of strikes this week has led our columnist, Ugo Monye, to weigh in on the wider issue facing rugby. Read more here…
Ireland fans, are you starting to fully believe in this team now, or is The Fear™ still lurking like impending danger? And what hopes for Italy today and for the rest of the tournament?
You can email me or tweet like the wind to tell me your thoughts on this and other topics.
Teams
Italy welcome back their sparkly-eyed talisman, Paolo Garbisi, who takes his place in the 10 shirt and pushed Tommaso Allan onto the bench. Menoncello moves into the centres and Pierre Bruno regains his starting berth on the wing. The luckless Jake Polledri misses out with a further injury.
Andy Farrell makes six changes to his team, but I wouldn’t describe them as wholesale, as he has the luxury of dropping in players who have each had key roles in the recent renaissance. The biggest omission is Johnny Sexton - recovering from an injury but may well have missed this week in any case – replaced by Ross Byrne. Craig Casey, the Munster man who never misses a chance to sniff something, will be his halfback partner.
The absence of Sexton hands James Ryan the captaincy, and Garry Ringrose misses his chance to win his 50th cap with a late injury.
Italy: Ange Capuozzo, Edoardo Padovani, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Pierre Bruno; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro, Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Luca Bigi, Federico Zani, Marco Riccioni, Edoardo Iachizzi, Giovanni Pettinelli, Alessandro Fusco, Luca Morisi, Tommaso Allan
Ireland: Hugo Keenan; Mack Hansen, Stuart McCloskey, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Craig Casey; Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher, Finlay Bealham, Iain Henderson, James Ryan (captain), Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Dave Kilcoyne, Tom O’Toole, Ryan Baird, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, Jimmy O’Brien
Preamble
A lot can happen in ten years. The United Kingdom at last count had 37 general elections and 19 Prime Ministers during the time since Italy last overcame Ireland back in 2013.
The Azzurri are back in Rome as a very different team to most of the intervening period, and while the victories are not rolling in so far in 2023, unlike Wales they are no longer being humiliated – far from it. After running France very close and giving England something of a fright in the second half at Twickenham, Kieran Crowley’s team will be heading onto home grass today knowing they can test and push any team if they play their best.
But, today’s opponents are Ireland. And this isn’t 2013 Ireland; the injury flayed, Luke Marshall in midfield, three yellow cards, Brian O’Driscoll stamping on people Ireland – this is Andy Farrell’s 2022-23 Caravan Of Victory. The only continuity from that difficult day a decade back is Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony are still around, as well as the ever latent yet indomitable Dave Kilcoyne.
A win is coming again for Italy, but not today.
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