Ireland defeat Italy: A laudable victory for adaptability and Joe Schmidt pragmatism

RBS Six Nations: Italy 3 Ireland 26: One down and four to go. Ireland are up but not quite running in the defence of their Six Nations title and with France coming to Dublin next Saturday, Joe Schmidt’s squad will know they are in a for hard week ahead of a much stiffer examination than the one provided by Italy in Rome.

That is not to say their performance at Stadio Olimpico on Saturday was not without merit. It was far from fluent, lacking in accuracy for long periods and not pretty on the eye. Yet given the context of an opening match away from home against stubborn opposition; of an inexperienced, injury-hit side and the loss of another key player, Sean O’Brien, just before kick-off, this was a victory borne of laudable adaptability and pragmatism.

After a narrow escape in Italy in 2011 and a miserable first Six Nations defeat here two years ago, Ireland finally got the job done. They asphyxiated the Italians by dominating their strongest assets at scrum and lineout, greedily chewing up possession and territory and exploiting the home side’s disciplinary weaknesses with faultless goal-kicking from Ian Keatley and the ruthless punishment of a second-half yellow card with tries from Conor Murray and Tommy O’Donnell.

In short, it was the successful negotiation of an awkward assignment which Schmidt was pleased to get out of the way and move on to the next, considerable challenge.

“Absolutely. I can’t really add a lot to that,” the Ireland head coach said. “It was a massive banana skin and you know you’re going to be under a lot of pressure from these guys. What happened the last time, what happened the time before, it’s not a one-off that we came under pressure two years ago. The time before the result could easily have gone against us as well.

“With their talisman (Sergio Parisse) back, with their strength in the players they were able to select from .... I’m personally relieved that we got through, we got a differential that we can be happy enough with, but we know that there are going to be incredibly tough battles over the next two matches and beyond. Then we’ve got to go away to Wales and Scotland. So there’s nothing easy in this tournament.”

With France and England at the Aviva Stadium over the next three weeks, that was no hyperbole from Schmidt who will look to build on this victory by adding more to Ireland’s attacking arsenal than was evident in Rome. It will be needed on March 1 against an extremely physical England side which treated Warren Gatland’s ridiculous attempt at mind games with the disdain it deserved and powered past Wales in Cardiff on Friday night. That was a performance which Schmidt felt set the benchmark for this year’s championship and which he believes his own team would have lived with at the weekend, describing Ireland as 20 to 30% off the English levels.

How much is needed to overcome France this Saturday remains to be seen after Camille Lopez kicked them to a tryless 15-8 victory over Scotland in Paris on Saturday night but with just five points separating the two sides over the last four Six Nations meetings, including back to back draws in 2012 and 2013, Schmidt knows he has to up the ante.

Speaking as Les Bleus were negotiating the first-half at Stade de France, he said: “We’ll have a look at the way the French defend this evening. I certainly saw them attacking in the first few minutes and looking pretty good. I think it’s going to be a really tough contest. I know a few of the French players reasonably well. We’ll try to cut our cloth to try and exploit any weakness we perceive and also to try to play to some of our strengths.”

As for the areas for improvement, Schmidt added: “I think it’s fairly global. There were a few small errors fairly early in the game .... if we can reduce those and maybe increase our effectiveness maybe five or 10%, you might get a 15 to 20% improved performance and that might start to put us in the ball park.”

The availability of fit-again and vastly experienced Lions Johnny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and possibly O’Brien should certainly help the cause, even if those standing in acquitted themselves well. Fly-half Keatley overcame a jittery start to his Six Nations career to land five from five attempts from the tee, the last a conversion of Murray’s try, before making way for Ian Madigan, who added another conversion after O’Donnell, the last-minute replacement for hamstrung O’Brien, scored an impressive try from 35 metres out. O’Donnell, who led the tackle count, had joined a back row also featuring another Six Nations first-timer, Jordi Murphy who, like Heaslip, put in a lot of hard work and whose carries got Ireland on the front foot.

Yet Schmidt will demand much more if France are to be subdued next Saturday.

The rust has been shaken off, the difficult first-day assignment has been completed and the wheels have begun to spin. Now Ireland have to get out of second gear and put the foot down.

ITALY: A Masi (G Venditti, 76); L Sarto, M Campagnaro (T Allan, 63), L Morisi, L McLean; K Haimona, E Gori; M Aguero (A De Marchi, 52), L Ghiraldini (F Minto, 73), M Castrogiovanni (D Chistolini, 68); J Furno, G Biagi (M Barbini, 74); A Zanni (M Barbini, 46, M Fuser, 67), F Minto (A Manici, 68), S Parisse.

Yellow card: Ghiraldini 63-73

Replacement not used: G Palazzani.

IRELAND: R Kearney; T Bowe, J Payne (F Jones, 68), R Henshaw, S Zebo; I Keatley (I Madigan, 65), C Murray (I Boss, 68); J McGrath (J Cronin, 68), R Best (S Cronin, 46), M Ross (M Moore, 51); P O’Connell, D Toner; P O’Mahony (I Henderson, 65), T O’Donnell, J Murphy.

Replacement not used: R Diack

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).