Ireland got their 2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up campaign off to a solid start courtesy of a 29-10 triumph over Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
The home side had a good first half and created plenty of try-scoring opportunities during that period but they went off the boil after half-time before eventually outscoring the Azzurri by five tries to two.
Joey Carbery, Dave Kearney, Andrew Conway, Jordi Murphy and Kieran Marmion scored Ireland's tries and Carbery also succeeded with two conversions, although there were concerned looks in the Irish camp when the Munster fly-half was forced off the field with an ankle injury early in the second half.
Italy's points came courtesy of tries from Maxime Mbanda and Carlo Canna.
The opening exchanges were evenly contested but the visitors gained the ascendancy as the half progressed and opened the scoring after 12 minutes when Mbanda crossed for the opening try. This, after Italy's forwards went on the drive from a lineout before Jimmy Tuivaiti broke away deep inside Ireland's 22. He was brought to ground close to the Irish try-line where Mbanda gathered the ball before crashing over.
Ireland put that setback behind them and were soon in control of proceedings. In the 18th minute, they showed great attacking variation from a lineout deep inside their opponents' half before beautiful hands from Chris Farrell put Carbery into space and he crossed for an easy five-pointer.
Carbery dusted himself to slot the conversion which gave his side a 7-5 lead but the Azzurri regained the initiative midway through the half when Canna gathered a perfectly weighted grubber kick from Giulio Bisegni before dotting down.
Once again, Canna failed with the conversion attempt and that would be the last time the visitors would score points in the match as Ireland upped the ante on attack and replied with well-taken tries from Kearney and Conway to take a 19-10 lead at the interval.
First, space was created for Kearney out wide and he had an easy run-in on the left flank after gathering the final pass from Jordan Larmour. And just before half-time, Conway crossed for his side's third try from close range after good work from his forwards in the build-up.
Full time score @AVIVAStadium IRELAND 29-10 ITALY #ShoulderToShoulder #TeamOfUs #IREvITA pic.twitter.com/VXOVJPZuU4
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) August 10, 2019
The home side were fastest out of the blocks in the second half and five minutes after the restart Jordi Murphy crossed for their third try off the back of a lineout drive deep inside Italy's half.
Shortly afterwards, Carbery left the field when he injured his ankle under a mass of bodies deep inside his half. The next 15 minutes was a dour affair with both sides committing several unforced errors during that period.
In the 63rd minute, there was further joy for the home crowd when Marmion charged down a clearance kick from Ian McKinley before regathering the loose ball on his way over the try-line to seal an unspectacular victory for his team.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Tries: Carbery, Kearney, Conway, Murphy
Cons: Carbery 2
For Italy:
Tries: Mbanda, Canna
Ireland: 15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Chris Farrell 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jordi Murphy, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Rhys Ruddock (c), 5 Jean Kleyn, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Cian Healy, 18 John Ryan, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Tadhg Beirne, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Jack Carty, 23 Mike Haley
Italy: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Matteo Minozzi, 11 Giulio Bisegni, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Guglielmo Palazzani, 8 Jimmy Tuivaiti, 7 Maxime Mbanda, 6 Giovanni Licata, 5 Dean Budd (c) 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Nicola Quaglio
Replacements: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Marco Lazzaroni, 20 Renato Giammarioli, 21 Callum Braley, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 Sebastian Negri
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant Referees: Tom Foley (England), Mike Adamson (Scotland)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
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