Ireland cruise into first-half lead against Azzurri

Ireland 23 Italy 8

Ronan O’Gara surpassed 500 championship points on his return to the Ireland side as the RBS 6 Nations champions led Italy 23-8 at half-time in today’s opening match at Croke Park.

The prolific fly-half, recalled in place of the injured Jonathan Sexton, opened the scoring on nine minutes to reach his milestone and went on to kick four other goals as Declan Kidney’s men made a confident start.

Jamie Heaslip and Tomas O’Leary scored tries while Italy pulled one back just before half-time through Kaine Robertson despite being down to 14 men with the sin-binning of centre Gonzalo Garcia for a dangerous tackle.

Italy were first onto the attack, courtesy of an error from Tomas O'Leary, who fumbled a towering kick from his opposite number Tito Tebaldi, and Ireland were under pressure when the normally reliable Paul O'Connell was turned over.

The Irish needed a couple of penalties from Frenchman Romain Poite, officiating in his first championship match, to relieve the pressure as it quickly became clear that this was not going to be a stroll for the champions.

Ireland managed to draw first blood, however, when Leicester prop Martin Castrogiovanni was penalised after nine minutes for incorrect binding and O’Gara slotted the 35-metre kick through the posts to go past 500 championship points and give his side a 3-0 lead.

That was just the spark Ireland needed for they suddenly opened up and scored a delightful try five minutes later.

Trimble made the initial break down the left wing, with O’Connell in support, and, although full-back Rob Kearney was stopped short of the line, it was enough to pull the Italian defence out of position to create a two-man overlap on the right for Wallace to send Heaslip over.

O’Gara added the conversion to make it 10-0 and the 82,000 fans began to relax.

Ireland grew more assured as the game went on and O’Driscoll produced a moment of magic which deserved more than it produced.

The Lions captain gathered his own precision chip and spotted a clear overlap on the right but put too much weight on his second kick and the chance was lost.

Gower opened Italy’s account on 26 minutes with a long-range penalty that just crept over the bar but O’Gara re-established a 10-point advantage two minutes later with a second penalty from more comfortable range.

Ireland supplemented their growing supply of possession with some classic line-out steals and it was no surprise when they went further ahead.

Treviso centre Gonzalo Garcia was sin-binned on 32 minutes for a dangerous tackle on O’Driscoll and O’Gara stepped up to kick a third penalty to make it 16-3.

The hosts immediately made the extra man count when Cullen stole another Italian line-out and O’Leary wrong-footed Tebaldi to score a second try from close range.

O’Gara maintained his 100% record with the boot, adding his fifth goal, but Italy grabbed a lifeline two minutes before half-time when right winger Kaine Robertson charged down Kearney’s attempted clearance and followed up to touch down.