Six Nations: Ireland 16 up at the break

Ireland 19, Italy 0 (half-time)

Ireland are 16 points to the good against Italy in their Six Nations game at Lansdowne Road.

John Kelly, in his debut in an Irish shirt, went over for the try which Ronan O'Gara converted - the Cork Con out-half also scored a penalty.

Ireland started brightly with Simon Easterby winning the first line-out from Byrne’s throw.

From there Ireland set-up Dennis Hickie in front of the posts but his attempted drop goal was just wide of the mark.

Humphries became Ireland’s record point scorer with a fifth minute penalty as Ireland took the lead.

And the home side were quickly on the offensive again when Anthony Foley kicked on to send Brian O’Driscoll chasing a try.

The Irish centre reached the ball alongside his opposite number Cristian Stoica and it took the video referee to determine that the Italian had won the race to deny the Irish an opening try.

Humphries added another penalty in the 12th minute and Ireland went searching for more points as Italy struggled to break out of their own half.

The pressure told once again in the 17th minute when Ireland were penalised for crossing and Humphries slotted over another penalty to give Ireland a 9-0 lead.

David Humphreys went off after 30 minutes with a suspected broken nose.

However, he re-appeared before the end of the first half to take his place.

Italy had Salvatore Perugini sin-binned for an apparent head butt on scrum-half Peter Stringer.

Out-half Diego Dominguez missed the chance to get points on the scoreboard on the stroke of half-time from the penalty spot.