Close call as Ireland U20s dig deep for victory

Ireland 19 Italy 13: Fitful, imprecise and, for large periods, distinctly unimpressive.

There is a strong case for arguing that this was the worst of the Ireland U20s’ four Six Nations outings to date, but Nigel Carolan’s lads just about found a means of delivering a second successive win after two opening losses.

Ireland’s last action had been two weeks ago in Newcastle’s Kingston Park, where they rattled off 20 unanswered points to claim a stunning first victory of the campaign, but all that momentum had frittered away come kick-off last night.

The same individual errors that had hamstrung efforts against Wales, France and even England until the turnaround there resurfaced from the first minute. Worse still, the side lacked structure and direction. Both of them are equally familiar grumbles this campaign. Italy had already suffered heavy defeats to both France and England and fallen ten points short of Scotland. They had had their moments in the tournament, that said, but nothing like last night where they dominated Ireland in both territory and possession in the first forty.

That first-half was, to be blunt, mostly awful. The main talking point was the lottery of a scrum with young referee Sam Grove-White doling out penalties harum scarum to both sides despite the fact that Italian loosehead Daniele Rimpelli was continually burrowing in illegally.

The Scottish official didn’t see it that way, obviously, and duly sent Ireland tighthead Conan O’Donnell to the bin just after the half hour with the hosts leading by 6-3 thanks to a pair of Brett Connon penalties in response to the one from Leonardo Mantelli.

O’Donnell’s ‘infringement’ came just outside the Irish 22 and it left Italy with an ideal attacking platform. They used it well with blindside flanker Giovanni Pettinelli diving over for the opening try after a handful of lunges for the line were thwarted.

Mantelli’s conversion and another penalty five minutes later left the Azurri with a richly-deserved 13-6 lead at the break, but Ireland used the pause to good effect and finally began to construct phases and build pressure.

Two Connon penalties inside the next ten minutes left them just the one adrift and they were finally sniffing around Italy’s try line. In the end, they only went over for one five-pointer and that came from outside-centre Shane Daly after an Italian pass was intercepted infield.

Connon made it five kicks from five on the night to open up a six-point lead, but there was still half-an-hour to play and it was a nervy spell for the hosts as Italy twice came within inches of brushing the whitewash.

Close. Too close.

Ireland:

B Connon (Newcastle Falcons); H Keenan (UCD/Leinster), S Daly (Cork Constitution/Munster), C O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster), J Stockdale (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster); J McPhillips (QUB/Ulster), J Poland (Cork Constitution/Munster); A Porter (UCD/Leinster), A McBurney (Ballymena/Ulster), C O’Donnell (Sligo/Connacht); P Claffey (Galwegians/Connacht), J Ryan (Lansdowne/Leinster); C Gallagher (Sligo/Connacht), W Connors (UCD/Leinster), G Jones (UCD/Leinster). Replacements: B Betts (Young Munster/Munster) for Connors (40-40+3); M Deegan (Lansdowne/Leinster) for Jones and T Kennedy (St Mary’s/Leinster) for Keenan (both 68); P Kiernan (UCC/Munster) for Daly and N Saunders (Harlequins) for Poland (both 73).

Italy:

M Minozzi; P Bruno, R Dal Zilio, M Zanon, L Sperandio; L Mantelli, V Charly Ernest; D Rempelli, M Manfredi, M Riccioni; L Krumov, S Ortis; G Pettinelli, D Ciotoli, G Venditti. N Broglia for Manfredi (HT); L Masseli for Ortis and l Masato for Bruno (both 56); M De Marco for Ciotoli (69); G Amendola for Rimpelli (71); G Zilocchi for Riccioni (74).

Referee:

S Grove-White (SRU).