Henshaw the main worry after Ireland drubs Italy

Ireland were left to count the cost of their big NatWest 6 Nations victory over Italy after losing Lions duo Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw to injury.

By Simon Lewis

Ireland were left to count the cost of their big NatWest 6 Nations victory over Italy after losing Lions duo Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw (pictured today) to injury.

Joe Schmidt's side cruised to a 56-19 win at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday in an eight tries to three hammering having taken a 28-0 half-time lead. Henshaw and Jacob Stockdale both scored two tries while there were also five-pointers from Conor Murray, a first Test try from Bundee Aki, Keith Earls and captain Rory Best.

Yet Ireland lost tighthead prop Furlong to a hamstring injury in just the fourth minute and then saw Henshaw suffer a nasty-looking shoulder injury in the act of scoring his second try.

Ireland, now with nine points from their opening wins, having also beaten France 15-13 on the first weekend, will be grateful for the rest week that now follows as the championship takes a breather after the first two rounds.

Their chief concern will be Henshaw, who hit the ground with a thud as he raced free to score by the posts in the 42nd minute. He was clutching his right shoulder in obvious pain after making contact with the ground and he was given oxygen as he received treatment before eventually rising and walking back to the dressing rooms with his arm in a sling.

“We'll know more after his scan tomorrow...He looked in a fair bit of discomfort when he came off but he was more comfortable later on,” head coach Schmidt said.

“What's not promising was the degree of discomfort he was in at the time. We'll have an update hopefully later once he's had that scan.”

Furlong had pulled up soon after kick-off in Dublin but Schmidt gave a more optimistic outlook on the prop's availability to face Wales at the Aviva on February 23.

“Tadhg felt a tightening on deceleration. We'd be hopeful he would still be okay in two weeks' time.”

Ireland also lost starting No.8 Jack Conan, whose first Six Nations start last just 40 minutes, the back-rower failing to reappear for the second half with Schmidt saying: “Jack just took a dunt on the shoulder, for Jack the shoulder will be checked out, it looks okay. We'd hope that would settle over the next week.”

Schmidt was delighted with his team's four-try first-half performance but less so with their offering after the interval as Italy finally got points on the board with tries from Tommy Allan, Edoardo Gori and Matteo Minozzi.

“I felt we scored some really good tries in those first 40 minutes, and to keep them to nil when we saw what good attacking players they had in the second-half. We got a little passive defensively in those last 20 minutes.

“We're disappointed with that, but it's a reference point for some of those younger players.”