Irish U21s beat Italians comfortably

IRELAND U21 33 ITALY U21 0

Ireland’s U21 recovered from their eight-point defeat to England last time out, to shut out their Italian counterparts, 33-0 at Thomond Park.

Three tries from UCC winger Richard Lane, the first after only seven minutes, sees Ireland guarantee a third place finish in the championship with Wales failing to defeat champions-elect England at Kingsholm tonight.

Mark McCall’s side went into the game with only a plus three points difference from their three previous games, and cut loose off a well-judged forward rumble as Lane edged outside opposite number Valerio Santillo to score in the right corner.

Queen’s out-half Gareth Steenson nudged over the difficult conversion and added the extras to UCD tight head Keith Doyle’s close range effort seconds before the end of the first half, after a strong lineout take and maul saw the College prop crash over.

The Italians, who had conceded 144 points in their previous three outings, had never defeated their hosts at this level and nine minutes after the restart they went further behind as Lane got in for his second off the back of a break by outside centre John Hearty.

Dublin University flanker Jamie Heaslip was put over by solid scrum work from busy Wasps’ number 9 Robbie Shaw on 65 minutes, converted by Steenson, and the rout was completed four minutes from the whistle as accounting student Lane touched down for his hat-trick and his fourth of the championship.

Ireland end their campaign next Friday in Stradbrook against Scotland.

Scorers: Ireland: Tries: R Lane 3, K Doyle, J Heaslip; Cons: G Steenson 4

Italy: -

Ireland: A Finn (Dolphin); R Lane (UCC), J Hearty (Blackrock Col), B O'Donnell (UL Bohemians), P McKenzie (Loughborough); G Steenson (Queen's), R Shaw (Wasps); J Wickham (Clontarf), D Fogarty (Cork Con), K Doyle (UCD), D Gannon (Blackrock Col) (Capt), S O'Connor (Cork Con), B O'Connor (Cork Con), J Heaslip (Dublin Unviersity), O Hennessy (Dungannon).

Replacements: C Geoghegan (UCD), S Bennett (Bath), N McComb (Dundee HSFP), D O'Brien (Old Belvedere), T O'Leary (Cork Con), M Glancy (Loughborough University), G Stafford (Lansdowne)

Italy: A Galante; L Nitoglia, A Chillon, N Pavin, V Santillo; A Marcato (Capt), G Toniolatti; L Milani, F Grasso, F Staibano, T Reato, V Bernabo, E Leonardi, L Ghiraldini, A Zanni.

Replacements: A Vigne-Donati, C Coletti, S Nicol, R Barbieri, M Pitton, C Spadaro, R Assandri.