Hickie a hero as Irish rout Italy

Ireland 61 Italy 6

Winger Denis Hickie booked his trip to Australia with a timely four-try feat as Ireland brushed aside Italy in their latest World Cup warm-up match in Limerick.

Ireland shook off the lethargy which had marked a stop-start first half with a devastating four-try burst in a 12-minute purple patch either side of the interval.

Two of the tries went to Hickie, who was making his first international appearance of the season due to injury, and he went over twice more in the space of seven minutes to guarantee himself a World Cup spot.

But some of the gloss was taken from their eight-try victory with the loss of number eight Victor Costello with a hand injury while winger John Kelly was carried off on a stretcher just before the end.

Costello, who missed the win over Wales a fortnight ago with a calf injury, made a lively start but damaged the fingers of his right hand in a fracas after 29 minutes and took no further part in the match.

The injury blows were the last thing on the mind of coach Eddie O’Sullivan eight days before he names his 30-man squad for Australia.

But there were more plusses than minuses for O’Sullivan as he watched his side put the disjointed Azzurri to the sword despite making 13 changes to the side that hammered Wales a fortnight ago.

Skipper Brian O’Driscoll, one man with nothing left to prove, showed his shimmering skills to the delight of a capacity Munster crowd at Thomond Park and another World Cup certainty, fly-half David Humphreys, contributed 26 points with a try and nine goals from 11 attempts.