Ireland 61 Italy 6

Ireland cruised to an overwhelming 61-6 victory over Italy at Thomond Park in Limerick in their World Cup warm-up match, with wing Denis Hickie running in four fantastic tries.

Italy fullback Gert Peens had an opportunity to open the scoring for the Italians in the first minute of the game, but he pushed it wide of the posts and it was left to Ireland fly-half David Humphreys to put one over for Ireland to move the hosts into the lead.

The Italians defended with reckless abandon in the first half and the Irish struggled to break the line until Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll managed to swing the ball out wide to John Kelly, who beat the last of the defence to dot down on the stroke of half-time.

Peens and Humphreys traded penalties to leave the score on 9-6 with 39 minutes on the clock before Kelly broke the deadlock with the score just before the break.

Ireland finished the half in style, however, when left-wing Denis Hickie broke through the Italian defence on the half-way line, rounded Peens and went over for a brilliant solo effort to touch down underneath the posts for the first of his tries.  Humphreys stretched the lead with the conversion as Ireland went into the break leading 23-6.

Ireland picked up the tempo in the second half, and hooker Shane Byrne picked up the try when the TV referee was brought into play after the Irish forwards drove over the line, and 10 minutes later Hickie managed to latch onto a brillaint cross-kick by Humphries to dot down.

The Italian defence, which was so resolute in the first-half, finally broke, and the Irish began to run riot.  Hickie then went on to equal O'Driscoll's Irish record of 18 tries as he ran in for his third, and then broke it with his fourth leaving the Limerick crowd roaring for more.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Reggie Corrigan, 2 Shane Byrne, 3 Marcus Horan, 4 Gary Longwell, 5 Leo Cullen, 6 Simon Easterby, 7 Eric Miller, 8 Victor Costello, 9 Guy Easterby, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Rob Henderson, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 14 John Kelly, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Jonathan Bell, Kieron Dawson, Brian O'Meara, Justin Fitzpatrick, Geordan Murphy, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul Shields

Italy:  1 Leandro Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 3 Andrea Lo Cicero, 4 Cristian Bezzi, 5 Mark Giacheri, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Andrea De Rossi, 8 Sergio Parisse, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Francesco Mazzariol, 11 Diego Sacca, 12 Matteo Barbini, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Nicola Mazzucato, 15 Gert Peens
Reserves:  Carlo Festuccia, Matthew Phillips, Andrea Masi, Aaron Persico
Unused:  Matteo Mazzantini, Ramiro Martinez-Frugoni, Ramiro Pez

Attendance:  14000
Referee:  Lander s.

Points Scorers

Ireland
Tries:  Dempsey G.T. 1, Kelly J.P. 1, Hickie D.A. 4, Humphreys D.G. 1, Byrne S.J. 1
Conv:  Humphreys D.G. 6
Pen K.:  Humphreys D.G. 3

Italy
Pen K.:  Peens G. 2