Gusts can't take wind out of Ireland's sails

Brian O’Driscoll admitted Ireland’s game-plan for their RBS 6 Nations Championship clash with Italy went out of the window when they ran out to gusting winds at Lansdowne Road.

Ireland, buoyed by their 19-13 win over world champions England, had hoped to serve up a feast of running rugby for their home fans against the Italians.

But a fierce, swirling wind ruined any chance of flowing rugby and the Irish had to rely on their pack keeping it tight to grind out a 19-3 victory in an error-strewn match.

“All week our game-plan was to throw it wide and then we come out here and it’s too windy for that,” O’Driscoll told BBC1.

“We had planned for something that we just couldn’t do on the day. But our forwards did well today. They made a lot of hard yards to set up the win.”

|O’Driscoll, who had to endure a spell in the sinbin after a high tackle on Italy scrum-half Paul Griffen, was relieved that Ireland got the job done in such testing conditions.

“In the first half, when we had the wind behind us, they were hanging on but, in the second half, we had to be strong defensively and I’m just glad we kept them out.”