Three things Ireland must deliver in Italian job
1. Seize the opportunity presented by the fixture schedule
While Joe Schmidt has reason to bemoan a Six Nations fixture schedule that saw Ireland face the top three contenders for championship honours — incorporating a six-day turnaround between the opening games against Wales and France — in the first three games, a welcome reprieve is finally at hand, after what has proved a difficult and challenging tournament to date.
History has shown that it is always better to play the Italians in the final phase of the championship, preferably at home. By that stage, the wind has normally left their sails, with injury, energy levels and a series of defeats finally impacting on their performance.
While they always retain a sting in the tail, as Declan Kidney found out in the final game of the 2013 Six Nations, when finishing their campaign in Rome, away fixtures at this stage of the competition normally see them get opened up.
Once again, the Italians were ultra competitive in their early games and but for a poor refereeing call in the final play of their opening game against France, Italy would have recorded a historic first ever win over the French in Paris. For 55 minutes against England at the Stadio Olimpico, they excelled and also had their moments against Scotland before suspect defending out wide cost them dearly.
The big question now is how much have Jacques Brunel’s charges left in the tank for his last two games in charge, and have they still got the fight to push Ireland to the limit? The biggest plus for Italian rugby in those opening two fixtures came from the performance of the half-back pairing of Edoardo Gori and, even more so, from impressive 23-year-old out-half Carlo Canna who started a test match for the first time against France after warming the bench at the World Cup. Now, just when they were finding their mojo, both have been ruled out due to injury.
2. Achieve mastery at half-back
For far too long now, Italian rugby has worshipped at the altar of their most impressive half-back pairing ever, in Diego Dominguez and Alessandro Troncon who played more than 50 tests together. When Italy were competitive on the international stage, that duo led the charge. While Troncon lasted long after his illustrious partner had departed the scene, becoming the first Italian player to accumulate 100 caps, he never again had quite the same impact.
Italy’s half-back woes have continued in this championship with Zebre’s Edoardo Padovani today becoming their third different out-half in four games. Canna’s loss to injury after looking so impressive against both France and England is a hammer blow, one compounded by Kelly Haimona’s poor performance against Scotland. With Gori also ruled out due to a rib injury, at least his replacement Guglielmo Palazzani offers familiarity for Padovani as both feature regularly for Zebre.
It has been a difficult championship for Johnny Sexton, with so much injury focus placed on him but the Leinster man was back to his influential best against England in tandem with the equally impressive Conor Murray.
Today is the day for that Lions partnership to take ownership of this game and stamp their authority against a pairing boasting only 12 caps between them, with Padovani starting a test for the first time.
Against England, Ireland’s half-backs kicked with far less regularity than was expected, opting instead to stretch the English defence with ball in hand. While the English coped well with the unexpected running threat posed, Sexton engineered two excellent line breaks that, on another day, would have yielded tries. It is imperative that both Sexton and Murray pick up where they left off in Twickenham and offer the tactical variety that will test a porous Italian defence out wide.
While the box kick has become an integral part of Murray’s armoury in recent seasons, his two tries in this championship demonstrate just what a threat the Munster man poses to the opposition back row. Typically those breaks have tended to come from within five metres of the opposition line.
The time has come for Murray to probe from further out the field if the opportunity presents itself. By putting the Italian back row on notice early on, that may also offer Sexton an extra yard to exploit his rookie Italian counterpart. Ireland’s experienced half-backs have the capacity to expose Italy’s limitations.
3. Cut loose at last
With just two tries scored in the three championship outings to date, both from Murray’s razor-sharp reactions close to the opposition line, Ireland need to rediscover their creative touch today. Even Italy have managed four tries in the championship but they have also conceded 11, more than any other team in the tournament.
On the flipside, while Ireland’s defensive system has looked vulnerable in all three contests to date, only four tries have been conceded. Italy are even more vulnerable in the wide five-metre channels than Ireland, with their wingers and full-back continually making terrible defensive reads when stepping in unnecessarily. By way of contrast both Andrew Trimble and Keith Earls have rescued desperate looking situations for Ireland with some excellent defensive reads, especially against Wales, to save the day.
Ireland caught England by surprise last time out when moving the ball wide from deep in an effort to exploit the space left by their back three sitting back to counter the expected aerial bombardment from Sexton and Murray. While their execution left Ireland down at times, given the defensive frailties of the Italians, it is a strategy that could offer rich dividends today.
As always, the key when playing against Italy is to remain patient and trust your ability to break them down in the final quarter. That is exactly what England did in Rome, and they ended up registering 24 points over the final 27 minutes. To do so, Ireland need to control the tempo of the game and are capable at playing at a far higher intensity level than their Italian counterparts.
That is what they failed to do when the two sides met at the pool stage of the World Cup only five months ago and Ireland very nearly payed a high price, Peter O Mahony’s last-ditch cover tackle on Joshua Furno in the second half changing the complexion of that game. Ireland cannot afford to be as accommodating this time out and need to ruthlessly expose the limitations of an Italian squad, of whom 20 of their match day 23 ply their trade for struggling Italian based clubs. Ireland need to make a statement today.
