Parsons hat-trick powers nine-try Ireland to Six Nations win over Italy in Galway

Ireland scored seven tries in the first half against Italy to bounce back from defeat to England and earn their first victory of this year's Six Nations

Béibhinn Parsons sored a first half hat-trick for Ireland against Italy in the Women's Six Nations. Pic: ©INPHO

Women's Six Nations: Ireland 57 Italy 20 

Ireland got their Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign up and running in fine style in front of a record home crowd at Dexcom Stadium on Saturday as Italy were put to the sword by nine tries to four.

A Beibhinn Parsons hat-trick set the tone for Ireland’s rebound from an opening-round loss to England seven days earlier as the Connacht wing led a seven-try, first-half Irish charge on her home ground to the delight of a 9,206 crowd.

The attendance eclipsed the previous mark of 7,754, set last year when Ireland hosted the English at Cork’s Virgin Media Park and the newly redeveloped Dexcom Stadium provided the perfect setting as Galway welcomed Six Nations rugby to the west for the first time.

It was a top-drawer Ireland performance, with scrum-half Emily Lane, No.8 Aoife Wafer, debutant wing Robyn O’Connor, and prop Ellena Perry augmenting Parsons’ hat-trick, and fly-half Dannah O’Brien’s five successful conversions helping the home side to a commanding 45-10 half-time lead.

The first-half fireworks were difficult to repeat, despite a try apiece in the first 10 minutes of the second period, Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald for Ireland stretching her team’s lead to 50-10 before Veronica Madia’s response in the 49th. Brittany Hogan ended a long spell without a score in the 72nd minute as O’Brien added her sixth conversion while centre Alyssa D’Inca claimed a try bonus point for the Italians. Yet it was not nearly enough to prevent a second heavy Italian defeat in a row to the Irish, who had won 54-12 in the 2025 contest.

Head coach Scott Bemand had made three changes from the side beaten 33-12 by world champions England on the opening weekend at Twickenham. O’Connor was handed an Ireland debut on the left wing in place of Vicky Elmes-Kinlan, while impressive performances off the bench in round one saw Nancy McGillivray promoted to start at inside centre, with Eve Higgins dropping to the replacements, while Ruth Campbell was handed a start in the second row as Dorothy Wall also moved to the bench following her comeback from an Achilles injury against England.

The changes did not disrupt Ireland’s fluency, far from it. They had started slowly at Twickenham, trailing 21-0 at the interval, but their start to this round-two clash was far more convincing as O’Brien kept the Italians pinned in their own half with her long kicking paying dividends. One such kick in the third minute gained an important foothold, full-back Stacey Flood collecting an Italian high ball on the run and Ireland eking out a penalty. Lane took a quick tap from 15 metres and caught defenders hopping to open the scoring close to the posts, O’Brien converting.

It was a well-constructed try and an excellent finish from the scrum-half but Italy replied soon after through their maul, hooker Vittoria Vecchini touching down, though the conversion was missed. From there, Ireland took full control, Wafer finishing a lineout drive, converted from wide out on 14 minutes before Parsons scored her first on her right wing as she collected a long pass from Flood after the forwards applied tryline pressure closer to the posts. Again the wide-out conversion was nailed by O’Brien to make it 21-5 with 18 minutes played and Ireland went further in front soon after when O’Connor marked her Test debut with an excellent finish as she rounded the last defender to bring up the try bonus point after just 23 minutes.

Parsons grabbed her second of the opening period on 29 minutes with Italy replying three minutes later through full-back Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi to make it 31-10 to Ireland. Two further tries before the interval, from Perry and Parsons’ hat-trick score on her opposite wing gave Ireland a commanding half-time lead, the home side’s seventh of the half the pick of them as Flood created space on the left wing with a flat pass to O’Connor on halfway. O’Connor fed fellow wing Parsons on her inside shoulder, who passed the ball on to Wafer, the No.8’s powerful carry complemented by an offload back outside for the debutant to finish a wonderful score.

O’Brien’s touchline conversion rounded out a dominant first half with Ireland leading 45-10 and a maul drive finished by hooker Moloney-MacDonald followed two minutes into the second half to reach the 50-point mark.

Ireland’s work was done and there was an inevitable fall off in intensity, with Italy claiming a third try of the evening on 49 minutes through replacement fly-half Veronica Madia to make it 50-15. A flurry of replacements disrupted the rhythm of the game and it was not until the final 10 minutes of the match that Ireland added to their tally, through flanker Brittany Hogan, O’Brien adding her sixth conversion before D’Inca claimed the final score of the game two minutes from time.

Ireland now head to France for a game in Clermont Ferrand next Saturday that Bemand’s side will target to avenge their World Cup quarter-final defeat last September.

IRELAND: S Flood; B Parsons, A Dalton (E Higgins, 53), N McGillivray, R O’Connor (A McGann, 56 - HIA); D O’Brien, E Lane (K Whelan, 67); E Perry (N O’Dowd, 53), C Moloney-MacDonald (N Jones, 53), L Djougang (S McGrath, 53 ); R Campbell (S Monaghan, 53), F Tuite; B Hogan, E King – captain, A Wafer (D Wall, 53).

ITALY: V Ostuni Minuzzi; G Buso, A D'Incà, S Mannini, L Muzzo (M Sillari, 56); E Stevanin (V Madia, 43), S Stefan (A Bitonci, 56); G Maris (S Turani, h-t), V Vecchini (C Cheli, 56), A Pilani (V Zanette, h-t); V Fedrighi, E Costantini (G Duca, h-t); F Sgorbini, A Ranuccini (B Veronese, 59), E Giordano - captain.

Referee: Ella Goodman (South Africa).