Irish pack front up to the challenge

IT WAS the one area, they said, where Ireland were vulnerable against the Italians, the one area where Italy could make Ireland suffer.

The front row.

“The scrum did come into focus a bit, didn’t it?” said coach Declan Kidney. Cast your mind back to November, when Italy put on one of their greatest displays, shunted the vaunted All-Blacks all over the San Siro in an awesome display of forward power, which, had they had a more sympathetic referee than Stuart Dickinson, would surely have resulted in the Italians finishing much closer to New Zealand than the eventual 20-6 scoreline.