Favourites go top of the table
A 28-17 victory over Italy in Rome on Sunday puts Ireland at the top of the Six Nations table, but the visitors didn't have it all their own way at Stadio Flaminio, and were forced to dig deep for their win. During the anthems, the Italians sang about Italia with passion while the man beat the big drum. For much of the match Italy played with passion and beat the drum.
Ireland took their chances and deserved the result, but it may just have been a bit of a Pyrrhic victory for Ireland as both their centres were helped off the field.
A hobbling Gordon D'Arcy was helped off after 28 minutes. And at the end Brian O'Driscoll was also escorted off the field. Ireland would rather play Scotland with those two stars next weekend.
There was a good crowd at Stadio Flaminio for a match which started in sunshine. There was a lot of Irish support and The Fields of Athenry echoed round the Seven Hills of the Eternal City.
Ireland scored three tries to Italy's one, but Italy had a lot of the match. They made fewer errors than Ireland and played their rugby with enthusiasm and creativity, but they just lucked the speed of O'Driscoll, Geordan Murphy and Denis Hickie.
The Italian pack gave the Irish pack a tough time. When Ireland had a five-metre line-out their defence was firm. When they had a chance to maul they made metres. And they had the scrum of the first Six Nations weekend. Ireland had a scrum five metres from their lone and Italy destroyed them. The Irish managed to keep the ball but it was tough.
Early in the match it looked as if Italy were about to do what Scotland had done to France the day before. In fact they could have been up at half-time had their goal kicker been of reasonable standard. Fly-half Luciano Orquera missed three penalty attempts out of four, and so Italy gave their next kick, the hardest of the half, to Roland de Marigny who slammed it over.
Most of the half belonged to Italy who kept Ireland looking jittery and scored first when Orquera kicked a penalty from in front. On 20 minutes Ireland attacked for the first time and when Italy went off-side Ronan O'Gara goaled to make it 3-all.
Up until then O'Gara's kicking out of hand had been wayward and contributed to Ireland's nervousness. Five minutes later Brian O'Driscoll dummied to a decoy runner and broke on the outside of Gonzalo Canale, drew De Marigny and gave to Geordan Murphy.
Speedy Ludovico Nitoglia hauled him in but in the tackle, on his back, he placed the ball behind his head for the try, which the TMO confirmed. An early chance gave O'Gara two shots at the conversion, but he missed both.
Half-time came with Ireland leading 8-6.
In the second half De Marigny scored first with a penalty for a tackle/ruck infringement. That gave Italy a 9-8 lead. Oh, for the missed trio of penalties!
Then O'Driscoll again sped past Canale. He fed Hickie who gave to Shane Horgan. Alessandro Troncon was about to bundle Horgan into touch when the big wing, used as a midfield punch for much of the game, flung the ball back over his head and straight into the arms of Peter Stringer who scored. O'Gara converted to make it 15-9.
The try will be disputed for Horgan may well have got a toe onto the touch-line before throwing the ball infield.
O'Gara and De Marigny kicked penalties and it was 21-18 with 20 minutes to go.
Murphy then had a good break, but Italy came closer moments later. Troncon chipped, the ball bounced, and speedy, small, young Nitoglia nipped in and grabbed the ball as Murphy and Girvan Dempsey tried to grab him. Nitoglia tried to get the ball down with his right arm but a centimetre or less above the ground he lost the ball. That gave Ireland a scrum and they survived.
From their battered scrum Ireland cleared the ball but Italy came back with a massive maul that got close tot he Irish line. Ireland held firm and then De Marigny ended the attack with a missed drop.
O'Gara kicked another penalty, and then Ireland got a quick turnover and Murphy got a quick switch of a pass to Hickie who traced past Troncon to score. O'Gara converted and it was 28-12 with four minutes left. The score flattered Ireland.
The enthusiastic Italians came back and battered at the Irish line for burly prop Martín Castrogiovanni to score a try which delighted all of Italy.
Man of the Match: Roland de Marigny, Alessandro Troncon, Andrea Lo Cicero and Mauro Bergamasco did well for Italy. For Ireland there were star performances from Peter Stringer, Simon Easterby and, above all, Malcolm O' Kelly, but the man who made the difference, our man of the match, not for the first time, was Brian O'Driscoll.
Moment of the Match: Peter Stringer's try made possible by that speculative throw back over his head by Shane Horgan.
Villain of the Match: There was none. There was not even nearly one.
For Italy:
Try: Castrogiovanni
Pens: Orquera, De Marigny 3
For Ireland:
Tries: Murphy, Stringer, Hickie
Cons: O'Gara 2
Pens: O'Gara 3
The teams:
Italy: 15 Roland de Marigny, 14 Mirco Bergamasco, 13 Gonzalo Canale (Paul Kaine Robertson, 71), 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Aaron Persico (David Dal Maso, 78), 5 Marco Bortolami(captain), 4 Santiago Dellapè (Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 66), 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro (Giorgio Intoppa, 78), 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (Salvatore Perugini, 78)
Unused replacements: 20 Paul Griffen, 21 Walter Pozzebon.
Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara (Girvan Dempsey, 29), 9 Peter Stringer (Munster), 8 Anthony Foley (Eric Miller, 77), 7 Denis Leamy, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell (Donncha O'Callaghan, 77), 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne (Frankie Sheahan, 77), 1 Reggie Corrigan (Marcus Horan, 61).
Replacements: 20 Guy Easterby, 21 David Humphreys.
Referee: Paddy O'Brien (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Tony Spreadbury (England), Roy Maybank (England)
Assessor: David Kerr (Scotland)
Television match official: Dave Pearson (England)
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