This victory was far from routine but as disappointing as Ireland were, they nevertheless left Rome with the five points they had targeted. And thanks to Wales’s victory against England, Joe Schmidt’s grand slam winners of a year ago still have a chance of retaining the Six Nations title.
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If they are to reel in Wales, with a visit to Cardiff due in the final round, they will have to play much better than this laboured and often disjointed performance, however. It was only just about good enough to see off an Italy side who missed a late penalty to grab a losing bonus point.
Italy had been leading 16-12 at half‑time as tries from Edoardo Padovani and Luca Morisi in the last seven minutes of the opening period cancelled out scores from Quinn Roux and Jacob Stockdale but failed to score after the interval as Keith Earls and Conor Murray closed out Ireland’s second win of the campaign.
“There’s a sense of relief because we didn’t play as well as we would have liked,” Schmidt, the coach, said, “and because we were down 16-12 at half-time and we were up against an Italian side who have proven in this competition that they are tough to beat.The Breakdown: sign up and get our weekly rugby union email.
“There’s a sense of relief because while we did create opportunities I don’t think we made the most of them and when we were building some positive attacks, we made errors. At the end of all that we are relieved.”
A routine victory had been expected and when some trademark multi-phase play was finished off by a try from the second-row Roux on 13 minutes, it appeared business as usual between these two sides. Johnny Sexton converted but the kick coincided with the withdrawal of Bundee Aki for a head injury assessment and Ireland were forced to reshuffle, Earls coming off his wing as Chris Farrell moved from outside to inside centre to cover the absentee as Andrew Conway filled in on the wing. It was made permanent as Aki failed to return.
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Added to the disruption was some sloppy play from the visitors, particularly at the lineout, where Rory Best’s stand-in, Sean Cronin, handed his first championship start in his 68th Test after 32 Six Nations appearances off the bench, failed to grab his opportunity.
Tommaso Allan had missed a 17th-minute penalty but the Italy fly-half had another shot at goal a minute later and made it count.
Italy were not playing like a side without a Six Nations win since 2015 but after they got their first points on the scoreboard they conceded a try from the restart, Stockdale pouncing on the loose ball as Italian players watched on and as he charged over the line to stretch Ireland’s lead to 12-3.
Yet Ireland were far from at their best, not least Sexton, whose 22 drop went out on the full to hand Italy a scrum in front of the posts. When Cronin strayed offside moments later, Allan had another simple penalty and the home side seemed to smell the blood of the misfiring Ireland.
When Cronin overthrew another Irish lineout, Italy got their reward. Jayden Hayward made an excellent break, sucking in the visiting defence with Allan exploiting the space out wide with a clever pass out to Padovani for a try in the corner on 33 minutes.
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Six minutes later and more Irish inaccuracy led to another Italian try, Tito Tebaldi pickpocketing his opposite number, Murray, at a ruck and racing upfield, Morisi eventually scoring in the left corner to give the home side a deserved 16-12 half-time lead.
Ireland’s poor play continued after the break yet when they did get their multi-phase game going again, they reaped the benefits, Murray releasing Earls who slalomed through the Italy defence for the 29th try of his 75-Test career. Murray took over the goalkicking duties from Sexton and slotted the conversion, and the scrum-half converted his own try 12 minutes later after he launched off the back of another good Irish maul to slip down the blindside and score.
That brought up Ireland’s bonus point but Schmidt’s team have a long way to go to regain their grand slam form of a year ago.