Ireland wannabees press case for Argentina minutes

Ireland 54 Italy 7

The victory was emphatic as Ireland routed Italy by eight tries to one at Soldier Field on Saturday. Yet while the performance was far from perfect that was exactly what Joe Schmidt expected when he selected a young side for this mission.

Opportunities to expose inexperienced players to Test rugby are few and far between the high-octane pressures of a Six Nations campaign and the high-profile showdowns with Southern Hemisphere giants and when they do arise, they must be grabbed with both hands. Particularly less than a year out from a World Cup.

Which is why, despite potentially titanic clashes with Argentina and New Zealand just around the corner, the Ireland head coach signed up for a trek to the American mid west to face an Italy camp led by Conor O’Shea with this Saturday’s clash with Georgia in Florence at the top of their agenda.

Italy were cruelly exposed both in the opening 20 minutes when they conceded an early try to Tadhg Beirne, and the final 40 which saw them leak six Irish tries. But there was a period before half-time where Ireland got stuck in the mud and their inexperience also showed.

Schmidt called it “stodgy” as his side reached half-time with just a 14-7 lead, Luke McGrath’s 32nd-minute try delivered on a plate to him by man of the match Jordan Larmour, having been cancelled out by Italy Michele Campagnaro, whose intercept of his fellow captain Rhys Ruddock’s short pass intended for Larmour summed up the feeling of Irish inertia.

That Ruddock and his team, with the benefit no doubt of a half-time rocket, found a solution to their ills by returning to their early high tempo, was as instructive as the second-half onslaught was encouraging.

Another try for Beirne on his first Test start, a dazzling post-interval hat-trick from the boy wonder Larmour and scores also for replacement hooker Sean Cronin off a driving maul and Garry Ringrose after some excellent work by his midfield partner Bundee Aki. It broke Italy’s resolve and put a very glossy sheen on what had previously been, well, stodgy.

Yet that is what this game was for. To give a fresh crop of Irish talent and players second-choice in their positions the opportunity to continue their development in Test rugby, the latitude to make mistakes and to learn from them.

“Absolutely,” Schmidt agreed. “I think I said on Thursday, these are really precious opportunities. They had one training on Thursday and a captain’s run on Friday. (They had) a walk-through on Tuesday to get organised. That’s it.

“Then to throw two new guys (Larmour and Beirne’s first starts) and expect it all to go well. It’s still something we expect to happen because if we don’t create that expectation you’re not going to get it, but it takes a bit of time to grow into the game.

“This game, it was for that reason. It was a chance to evolve Will Addison and Ross Byrne (debutants off the bench). It was an opportunity to give Tadhg Beirne a start. I thought Quinn Roux, his work rate was super in the game and he was very physical. Dave Kilcoyne and Finlay Bealham and they were very physical. That hit in the middle of the field. That’s the sort of thing that you’re looking for. Sean Cronin came off the bench and was really dynamic for us.

“I think those guys coming off the bench made a really positive contribution. It was an opportunity to get them involved and learn a few lessons.”

So too half-backs Luke McGrath and Joey Carbery. There were times during that first half when the going got extremely tough for the duo as they struggled to take the game by the scruff of the neck, scrum-half McGrath suffering from slow ball at the breakdown and fly-half Carbery acting as a magnet for Italy’s big ball-carriers. It was his overcooked skip pass, picked off by wing Giulio Bisegni that sparked an Azzurri revival in the opening period after a dominant opening 15 minutes but Schmidt knows it is all part of the learning curve for the young playmaker still learning the ropes at 10 as he and McGrath bid to provide dependable back-up for Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray respectively heading to Japan next September.

“I think it was slow and it was all sluggish,” the head coach said. “I think it’s really hard for halves to inject tempo into the game if the ball is slow and big pile-ups are happening and they (Italy) are physical defensively…. in the second half they both really picked up the tempo.

“I thought they played really well. If anything, (they played) maybe a little bit conservatively in the first half. There were times when they could have tried to open the game up a little bit and we took the more conservative options but those are things that they will look back on and keep learning.

“That’s why they’re were given the opportunity. That’s exactly what we want them to do.”

Schmidt backed Carbery to build from what was just his fourth Ireland start, particularly that picked-off pass.

“Again, he’ll learn from that decision. The last time we were here in Red Bull Arena (in New Jersey), he got charged down twice but he got a charge down today. He’s a kid that learns well and works hard.

“Certainly that wide pass, it never looked really like it was on. While we had some numbers there I think we were never going to get the space on the edge. Even if he didn’t pick the pass off he would have probably hit Jacob (Stockdale) into touch if he’d gone for the man instead.

“He’ll look back on that and build something else into his game. You know Joey didn’t run today and so I just felt he was trying really hard to bring everyone else into the game and one of the strengths of Joey’s game is bringing himself to the fore.

“So, I hope he gets a bit of confidence from what he did today and mixes that up a little bit.”

IRELAND: J Larmour; A Conway, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Stockdale (W Addison, 60); J Carbery (R Byrne, 60), L McGrath (J Cooney, 65); J McGrath (D Kilcoyne, 50), N Scannell (S Cronin, h-t), A Porter (F Bealham, 58); T Beirne (D Toner, 60), Q Roux; R Ruddock, capt, J van der Flier (J Murphy, 68), J Conan.

ITALY: L Sperandio; M Bellini, M Campagnaro, L Morisi (G Palazzani, 70), G Bisegni; C Canna (I McKinley, 60), T Tebaldi; N Quaglio (C Traore, 21), L Bigi (O Fabiani, 63), T Pasquali (G Zilocchi, 61); M Fuser (M Lazzaroni, 64), G Biagi (F Ruzza, 55); J Meyer, A Steyn, R Giammarioli (J Tuivaiti, 55).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)