Italy loss disappointing but 'not defining' for Ireland in this Six Nations

NOT DEFINING: Ireland head coach Scott Bemand speaks to his players after his side's defeat in to Italy at the RDS Arena. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Guinness Women's Six Nations

Ireland 21 Italy 27

No Easter revival for the Ireland women’s side, then, their hopes of a first Six Nations win since the last round of the 2022 Championship coming up agonisingly short thanks to a whole host of basic and costly errors.

Maybe you’ve heard some of the headline stats by now? The 27 handling errors? The 17 turnovers conceded? The numbers dig deeper than that but the bald picture doesn’t get any more nuanced. Ireland shot themselves in the foot here, time and again.

Scott Bemand’s team ran 400 metres more than Italy with ball in hand, they had seven line breaks to three, beat 31 defenders against 15 and their ruck speed was infinitely better. In all, 76% of their rucks were cleared inside three seconds. Italy managed just 40%.

But those errors...

Time and again Ireland dropped simple balls. The worst was probably 12 minutes into the second-half when Beibhinn Parsons, a phenomenal player with a killer instinct, let one slip with the try line undefended just two or three metres away.

But there was more. Ireland lost their attacking shape, they made bad decisions at critical times, their work under the high ball was below par and their defence, which garnered so much praise after the opening loss in France, was too easily punctured.

That’s quite the list.

“As a group, we've said we go for performance, and we definitely haven't shied away about talking about winning,” said Bemand. “As we sit here now we're pretty disappointed not to win the game. There's plenty of moments in that, that gave us opportunities to do that.

“We'll dust ourselves down, we have two big games [to come against Wales and Scotland] in Ireland, and obviously the one away in England. We have some big games to come, and if we're not winning we're learning and we'll go after the learning.” 

Bemand talks a good game. The Englishman exudes a chirpy positivity and that’s understandable, maybe even advisable, given the brittle nature of the collective’s confidence after too many defeats and disappointments across too many seasons.

The real frustration here is that they showed their potential and could have won it against an Italian side that was far more clinical in claiming their four tries. Ireland actually started like a train and nearly pulled off a veritable heist with a belated rally.

Their opening ten minutes was electric, Aoife Wafer storming through the middle from the back row and Parsons impersonating a wrecking ball out on the wing. The result was a penalty try and a yellow card for Italy’s Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi after seven minutes.

The visitors lost two forwards to injury shortly after. They were vulnerable but Ireland’s directness and skills deserted them and they failed to make hay in the rest of a first quarter that saw them claim 78% possession and 85% territory.

Italy didn't need to be asked twice.

Two tries in two visits to the Irish 22, one from the superb hooker Vittoria Vecchini, the other from lock Valeria Fedrighi, left the visitors 12-7 to the good. Then Beatrice Rigoni added a penalty before the break after Lauren Delaney got caught returning a kick in her 22.

Delany paid a higher price again when being replaced with an injury. Dannah O’Brien shifted from ten to full-back with Nicole Fowley assuming the pivot but Ireland would continue to let opportunities pass them by after the break.

Vecchini added another try approaching the hour, the winger Auro Muzzo another on 69 minutes and not long after having one ruled out for a forward pass. That left Italy 27-14 to the good and in cruise control.

A converted intercept try from wing Katie Corrigan injected new life back into a game played in front of a record crowd of 6,605 for an Irish women’s game in this country, and the hosts were two metres from the line in injury-time before Italy cleared and claimed the win.

This being Easter, it was something of a curate’s egg from Ireland. The opening spell demonstrated the levels the team can reach, the end game backed up the stubborness shown in Le Mans, and the imperfections in between showed just how far they still have to go.

That’s two losses from two games now. Wales will come to Cork with the exact same record in two week’s time. Any outside chance of a third-place finish, and the qualification that brings for next year’s World Cup, rests on a win in Virgin Media Park.

“We're going after the positive stuff because there's stuff out there we want to keep growing in our game. We're an honest group. We'll look hard at that and see what, why and how we didn't score. The story doesn't finish here. We have two games back in Ireland and our challenge now is to learn faster than anybody else.

“The group is positive,” said the head coach. “The group has had a bit of a setback today but it's not defining of a Six Nations. I back our girls to come out, work hard, get looking forward to the next game and come and produce a performance that hopefully we can convert into a winning performance.” 

IRELAND: L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, S Monaghan; G Moore, A Wafer, B Hogan.

Replacements: N Fowley for Delany (37); F Tuite for Moore (55); A Dalton for Breen and M Scuffil-McCabe for Reilly (60); S McGrath for Haney (64); E Corri for Wall (67); N O’Dowd for Djougang (77).

ITALY: V Ostuni Minuzzi; A Muzzo, B Rigoni, E Stevanin, A D’Inca; V Madia, S Stefan; S Rurani, V Vecchini, E Seye; V Federighi, G Duca; S Tounesi, F Sgorbini, I Arrighetti.

Replacements: B Veronese for Sgorbini (12); G Maris for Turani (15); I Locatelli for Tounesi and L Gai for Seye (both 70); F Granzotto for Madia (77); A Frangipaini for Arrighetti (77); L Gurioli for Vecchini (80).

Referee: H Davidson (Sco).