Roman ruins as Ireland finally crumble

Italy 22 Ireland 15

Ireland limped out of the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday evening like soldiers disembarking a troop ship from Gallipoli and only brave Scottish defending on another front against the French saved them from the ignominy of last place for their troubles.

This was a terrible day’s work for an injury-hit Ireland in Rome as they fell to first defeat to Italy in 13 years since the Azzurri turned Five Nations into Six.

It was well deserved too as Ireland once again squandered their set-piece platform, failed to turn opportunity into points and offered up too many penalties to the Italians through sloppy errors and rank indiscipline.

It was always going to be a tough afternoon. Italy came into this final RBS 6 Nations fixture having beaten France at home and were buoyed by their most recent performance, nearly upsetting England at Twickenham. Conversely, Ireland had staggered from one game to the next, memories of that opening-day, three-try, 45-minute burst of scintillating rugby fading with every dropped pass, poor decision and badly executed move.

The mitigating factors are impossible to ignore as Ireland’s disastrous casualty list continued to plague a management team already struggling manfully with a 40% injury rate. Declan Kidney lost three more, all from his starting backline, before half-time and during one near-apocalyptic five-minute spell midway through the first half, saw Keith Earls and Luke Marshall go off injured, Paddy Jackson miss a penalty and Brian O’Driscoll sin-binned for a stamp on Simone Favaro. Substitute back Luke Fitzgerald also went down a short time after as team doctor Eanna Falvey made so many yards ferrying players between the pitch and the dressing room steps he started to figure in the official match statistics.

The way Ireland’s luck was going, it was amazing not only that they trailed only 9-6 at half-time, but that no-one fell down that staircase as the team descended for the interval team-talk.

Jackson’s penalties had book-ended a half in which Italy, passionate from the off, had calmed themselves down and exploited the disarray the visitors had found themselves in, as Ireland finished the first 40 minutes with flanker Peter Mahony on the wing and substitute fly-half Ian Madigan at inside centre.

But it was not all misfortune. Ireland’s lineout, as it had been in the first half against Scotland, was a shambles, disrupted superbly by the Italians, not least by back rowers Alessandro Zanni and his imperious captain Sergio Parisse, while fly-half Luciano Orquera had one of his better days with the boot, punishing Irish lapses in discipline with two penalties while centre Gonzalo Garcia added a third from long range as O’Driscoll watched from the naughty step.

There was further trouble for Ireland after the break when Italy’s Giovanbattista Venditti pick and go try was converted by Orquera but still Ireland hung in, and caught a huge break when Parisse was yellow carded for a trip on Madigan. Jackson, growing in confidence off the tee since a shaky Test debut at Murrayfield, took full advantage and for once Ireland scored points during a power play, nine of them, bringing the game within a point at 16-15 with 16 minutes remaining.

Ireland shot themselves in the foot again as needless yellow cards in the last 12 minutes for Donnacha Ryan and Conor Murray, his second of the championship, allowed Orquera to add the final nail to Ireland’s championship coffin.

So the Six Nations ends with one win, a draw and three losses, none of which were by more than a score and that makes it all the more frustrating. Captain Jamie Heaslip pointed to the positives and the long-term benefits of blooding so many young players in the pressure-cooker atmospheres this championship generates.

“A lot of guys have taken their opportunity to step up, given a chance to wear the green jersey, new caps, guys who haven’t had as much international experience as maybe others,” Heaslip said.

“The frustrating part is in all three games that we have lost it has been a score or two that separated us.

“We made too many errors and gave too many free shots at goal, turned over too much easy ball at set-pieces, not converted our own opportunities and they are quite frustrating and we have got to learn from it.

“They are a young bunch, an inexperienced bunch, they will learn from this, they have to learn from this as we go forward.”

He may well be correct and the emergence of a young, exciting side two years out from England 2015 may be enough to earn Kidney a new contract to complete the World Cup cycle.

But another season has gone by with an alarming and overriding sense of under-achievement from this Ireland side. Not for the want of effort but, even with the current injury toll, it could and should have been better than this.

ITALY: A Masi (T Benvenuti, 66); G Venditti, G Canale, G Garcia, L McLean; L Orquera, E Gori (T Botes, 74); A Lo Cicero (M Rizzo, 64), L Ghiraldini (D Giazzon, 74), L Cittadini (A De Marchi, 74); Q Geldenhuys (A Pavanello, 64), J Furno (F Minto, 58); A Zanni, S Favaro (P Derbyshire, 58), S Parisse – captain.

Yellow card: S Parisse, 52-62.

IRELAND: R Kearney; C Gilroy, B O’Driscoll, L Marshall (I Madigan 27), K Earls (L Fitzgerald, 25; I Henderson, 36); P Jackson, C Murray; C Healy (D Kilcoyne, 70), R Best (S Cronin, 70), M Ross (S Archer); M McCarthy (D Toner, 64), D Ryan (P Marshall, 80); P O’Mahony, S O’Brien, J Heaslip — captain.

Yellow cards: B O’Driscoll, 30-40; D Ryan, 69-79; C Murray, 79.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).