Ireland keep Italy scoreless to claim bonus point win
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: James Lowe of Ireland beats the tackle of Ross Vintcent of Italy during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Ireland continued their winning start to their Guinness Six Nations title defence with a second bonus-point victory of the 2024 campaign as they romped past a poor Italy team at Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
It was a second five-point return in as many games though this had none of the drama nor required anywhere near the same level of performance of Ireland’s opening-round victory over France in Marseille nine days earlier.
First-half tries from Jack Crowley, the first senior try of the 24-year-old fly-half’s career, Dan Sheehan and Jack Conan gave Andy Farrell’s men a commanding 19-0 half-time lead. Sheehan added a second after the break, man of the match Lowe produced a strong finish to add a fifth before Calvin Nash claimed his second Test try, though not before an injury to full-back Hugo Keenan put a dampener on an otherwise enjoyable afternoon for the 2023 Grand Slam winners.
Ireland, captained for the first time by Caelan Doris, in the absence of injured Peter O’Mahony, showed six changes from their Stade Velodrome line-up. The stand-in skipper was part of a reconfigured back row, moving from No.8 to openside flanker to accommodate the inclusion of Jack Conan as Josh van der Flier moved to the bench while Ryan Baird deputised for O’Mahony at blindside flanker.
With Tadhg Beirne rested, James Ryan joined Joe McCarthy in the second row while a calf injury for Tadhg Furlong led to a start for Finlay Bealham. There were two changes to the backline with Craig Casey handed a chance at scrum-half as Jamison Gibson-Park moved to the bench while a knee problem for Bundee Aki saw Stuart McCloskey came in at inside centre.
As many changes as there were, including returning to a five-three split on the bench after Farrell had deployed six forwards with great effect against the French, it failed to derail the fluidity and efficiency of Ireland’s performance.
Italy’s Under-20s had fired a warning shot across Irish bows in Cork on Friday night when they nearly ended the hosts’ bid for a hat-trick of Grand Slams, their quest rescued with a late try from debutant replacement back-rower Sean Edogbo in a 23-22 victory. Yet the senior team barely made a dent in Dublin less than 48 hours later.
They had arrived in Ireland promising an upturn under new head coach Gonzalo Quesada which had given England a fright in Rome eight days earlier, albeit in a 27-24 defeat and the spirit and attacking ambition shown at Stadio Olimpico failed to follow them to the Irish capital.
Paolo Garbisi had had a chance to open the scoring with a penalty on four minutes but his kick was a poor one and Ireland were up and running three minutes later when fly-half Crowley grabbed his first senior try, for either Munster or Ireland, finishing a lovely move instigated by a quick tap penalty by full-back Hugo Keenan inside his own half. Once inside the Italian 22, an all-Munster combination of Casey and Calvin Nash put Crowley into space for the try, the only blip coming in the number 10’s failure to convert with a poor contact off the tee.
It mattered little, as Ireland dominated proceedings, though the second try took another 14 minutes to arrive, Crowley again at the centre of things with a smart offload with wings James Lowe and Nash also involved before the lively Robbie Henshaw made crucial ground inside the 22. The outside centre passed outside to midfield partner McCloskey who provided the final pass to Sheehan, Crowley this time converting to make it 12-0 after 24 minutes.
It was Crowley’s boot which concluded the first half scoring after Conan had claimed his 10th Ireland try after a lineout maul had brought his pack to the tryline, the No.8’s dive for the line producing the third five-pointer of the opening 40 three minutes before the interval and the home side taking a 19-0 lead into the break.
Italy made a half-time change at tighthead prop and replacement Giosue Zilocchi conceded the scrum penalty against loosehead Andrew Porter that led to Ireland’s bonus-point try on 49 minutes, Sheehan claiming his second of the afternoon as the Azzurri’s maul defence disintegrated.
Ireland were over soon after only for Henshaw’s finish to be ruled out after a TMO check, the centre adjudged to have made his final dart for the line from off his feet but the wait for a fifth try did not last long, albeit coming after the loss of Keenan, who hobbled off on 55 minutes.
That brought on replacement fly-half Harry Byrne with Crowley moving to full-back.
Italy could have done without losing centre Tommaso Menoncello to a needless yellow card on 57 minutes for a trip on James Lowe. The Ireland winger made them pay, with a big carry down the left wing four minutes later, his try extending the lead to 29-0 as the men in green continued their dominance.
Nash capped a fine performance with his second try in as many starts following a Six Nations debut in France, Byrne adding the conversion to leave Ireland 36-0 ahead with only seconds remaining.
: H Keenan (H Byrne, 55); C Nash, R Henshaw (J Larmour, 63), S McCloskey, J Lowe; J Crowley, C Casey (J Gibson-Park, 72); A Porter (J Loughman, 55), D Sheehan (R Kelleher, 55), F Bealham (T O’Toole, 55); J McCarthy, J Ryan (I Henderson, 60); R Baird (J van der Flier, 64), C Doris – captain, J Conan.
: A Capuozzo; L Pani (F Mori, 57), J I Brex, T Menoncello, M Ioane; P Garbisi, S Varney (M Page-Relo, 57); D Fischetti (M Spagnolo, 55), G Lucchesi (G Nicotera, 55), P Ceccarelli (G Zilocchi, h-t); N Cannone, F Ruzza (A Zambonin, 55); A Izekor, M Zuliani (R Vintcent, 68), M Lamaro – captain.
T Menoncello 57-67
T Allan.
Luke Pearse
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