Ireland 22; Italy 17
A third place finish at the end of the day was a disappointment but in the cold light of dawn, maybe we should start being realistic about this Ireland rugby team.
For a start they lost their leader — a bit like Kerry losing a Mick O’Dwyer or the soccer team losing a Jack Charlton — because what Andy Farrell has achieved with our rugby squad is little short of amazing since he took over from Joe Schmidt six years ago: beating the All Blacks in a series down in their own backyard, drawing with the current World Champions South Africa in their patch and winning the Six Nations twice, including a Grand Slam.
With Farrell on a sabbatical on Lions duty this Six Nations season, the cocky expectation that one of his backroom team Simon Easterby could slip into his boots and lead us to an unprecedented three in a row of victories was not based in reality, considering how good France are and also the huge pick England has to swap and change around players while they look for a winning formula.
So while this has been far from a champagne season of rugby from the players in green, like the other two giants, we only lost one match in the series and ended as third place performers behind France and England. In an ordinary season, that would reflect in the numbers going on the Lions trip to Australia, this summer but you’ve got to believe that Farrell will keep faith with a lot of his players and will know what buttons to press to get them back to the level they have played under him these past few seasons in particular.
Andy Farrell.
In fairness Easterby was left in a no-win situation and overall his season tenure has been a C+ grade - something he acknowledged himself after the hard-fought victory in Rome on Saturday where we promised a lot more than we achieved, albeit we ended with a four-try bonus point victory.
Said the Interim Head Coach: “We didn't quite get as many points as we would have liked and that’s a credit to Italy. We left a few scores out there as well. A lot of that was down to us. There was some pressure that came on from their defense.
"That’s part of the game; you’ve got to deal with pressure and you’ve got to be able to come out the other side with positive outcomes and we didn't always do that. A little bit of frustration, I guess the five points was the priority.
"They [Italy] obviously have been disappointed, certainly with the French result and performance and they showed that when they’re physical and given a chance to be, and the side they’re playing isn’t as accurate, they can play as well as anyone and stay in games. It's disappointing that we didn't play at our best but credit to them as well."
Overall, his view on the Ireland team was one of improvement. He went on: “I think they’ve gone forwards. All you want is experience and you want to go and build moments and build some continuity in the squad.
"We’ve had some new guys coming in. I think there’s loads of positives around getting more exposure. Six Nations is a totally different ball game in terms of pressure, in terms of the opposition, in terms of the build-up. I feel we’ve moved forward in some areas. In other areas we haven't. I think that’s the mark of the team. We won four out of five and will still feel like we can get better in lots of areas,” he stressed.
Captain Caelan Doris, who is one of the names mentioned as potential captain of the Lions touring party, knew Ireland had to stay tough to dig out a victory.
“Relief is the overriding feeling at the end, it was a pretty scrappy game. We knew that if they clung in around half-time and into the last quarter it would be a tough test throughout.
“We were pretty inaccurate, especially in the first half, overplayed a little bit in our half and weren't clean with ball in hand and a couple of last passes we didn't convert.
“Some disappointing bits in there but we got our five points. There’s three legends leaving the group so at least we got the result for them and we can enjoy a few beers tonight with them. The impact they have on our environment, it’ll be a tough loss.
“We need to use these last two weeks as a springboard to keep evolving. I think it’s a good reminder that there’s so much more in it, we’re by no means the finished article at all. I hope it’s a springboard for more evolution and growth.”
Let’s hope that is the case and this season will be one of transition where we bedded in new blood like Sam Prendergast, Jamie Osborne and Jack Boyle and waved good-bye to great stalwarts such as Peter O’Mahoney, Cian Healy and Conor Murray.
Ireland were the first up to play and really didn’t lay down a marker as later England demolished Wales and even later still France ran riot against Scotland, who in fairness to them kept in the game a lot longer than many imagined in Paris.
Ireland never got the wheels in motion, went a converted try down before getting control but even then when Italy got over for their second try, we were fighting a rearguard action at the end to keep our noses in front.
Italy could have done a lot better had their discipline not been so shoddy. They lost Michele Lamaro to a yellow and then Ross Vintcent followed him for a 20-minute red card immediately after half-time.
Then when they were mounting pressure to try to stage a famous victory against us, Giacomo Nicotera was sin-binned in the final minute for a head tackle on Peter O’Mahony.
With Jack Crowley starting his first game ahead of Prendergast, Ireland set out to build a big score and put it up to the other big two later in the day. Realistically that never became an option as Monty Ioane’s early first half try and a penalty for Tommasso Allan had the hosts 10-7 ahead before Hugo Keenan’s try on the cusp of the short whistle following by a Dan Sheehan special put our noses in front going in for the interval.
What a player Sheehan has shown himself to be, coming back from a cruciate injury last July, to dominate this Six Nations, culminating in a hat-trick of tries on Saturday. He won’t be far away when it comes to naming the Player of the Tournament.
Crowley forgot to bring his kicking boots as he missed all three conversions and was way off as an international out-half for much of this game, being replaced late on by Prendergast, who had little time to show his offensive talents.
Ireland were comfortable if not convincing when 22-10 ahead but once Stephen Varney’s try arrived in the final quarter to make it 22-17, there was the real prospect that the home side could upset the applecart and claim a prized scalp.
That looked likely only once when a promising three-quarter movement needed a brilliant intervention from James Lowe to avert danger.
With O’Mahony and Murray on for playing minutes at the end of their careers, Ireland repulsed whatever else Italy could throw at them and limped rather than strode to victory in the end.
Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, F Bealham; J Ryan, T Beirne; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: G McCarthy (for Sheehan, 70), J Boyle (for Porter, 64), T Furlong (for Bealham, 46), J McCarthy (for Ryan, 46), P O'Mahony (for Van der Flier, 52), C Murray (for Gibson-Park), S Prendergast (for Crowley, 64), B Aki (for Henshaw, 56).
Ref: L Pearce (RFU).
Ireland scorers: Tries: Hugo Keenan, Dan Sheehan (3) Cons: Jack Crowley (1)
Italy scorers: Tries: Monty Ioane, Stephen Varney Cons: Tommaso Allan (2) Pens: Tomasso Allan (1)
