Murray Kinsella reports from Stadio Olimpico
IRELAND HAMMERED ITALY 63-10 in Rome, a new record win in the Six Nations.
Read our match report of the nine-try win here.
Strong start
Ireland’s opening quarter was a stark contrast to last weekend at Murrayfield. Tries from Keith Earls and CJ Stander had Schmidt’s side leading 14-0 before the 20-minute mark, whereas Ireland had trailed 14-5 at that point against Scotland.
Simon Zebo’s superb aerial win under an accurate, hanging Conor Murray box kick set the tone for Ireland just 20 seconds into this game, with Garry Ringrose making a half-break up the right hand 15-metre channel to warn the Italians of his threat.
There were still errors, but the Ireland scrum also made a statement with a powerful penalty at the very first set-piece, Cian Healy showing how eager he was to make an impression.
The second scrum saw Ireland disrupt the Italians too, with Murray forcing a knock-on from Sergio Parisse at the base. There was patience from Ireland in the Italy 22, as the home side repeatedly infringed, and also confidence to go for tries when referee Glen Jackson did give them penalties.
When Earls crossed in the 12th minute, one sensed that it was going to be a long afternoon for Italy. Schmidt and his coaches will have been delighted with their side’s start. Everything else was easier from there.
Clinical attack
Our analysis of Ireland’s attack at Murrayfield showed plenty of positive intent and ambition with ball in hand, but not the kind of consistent execution of the basics that was required.
Ireland’s breakdown work in attack was also poor in round one, but those issues were all solved at Stadio Olimpico.
Ireland’s ball carriers got over the gainline, their rucking was highly efficient and their strike plays nearly always resulted in gains. From there, the decision-making and passing was superb from Schmidt’s men as they took advantage of a dire Italian defence.
Paddy Jackson was excellent in orchestrating much of Ireland’s best play, while the likes of CJ Stander, Robbie Henshaw, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien were hugely influential as ball carriers.
Zebo was particularly impressive on the left wing, especially in the first half, and seeing him a delivering try-scoring pass is encouraging as Ireland look to ensure they are not solely reliant on their out-half for playmaking with ball in hand.
Scannell nails his debut
Hooker Niall Scannell found out at a late stage that he was going to be starting on his Ireland debut, after captain Rory Best came down with a stomach bug on Thursday night.
The Munster man, so excellent for his province this season, took it all in his stride. Scannell nailed the basics of hooker play, helping Ireland towards an encouraging 100% return at the lineout and forming part of a destructive front row at scrum time.
He put his hand up as a ball carrier, tackled well and even tacked on a pair of passes to show his good skills.
Sean Cronin would almost certainly have been back-up hooker again in this championship if not for injury, but it is highly positive that Scannell now has 63 minutes of Test rugby under his belt and may well add to that in the coming weeks.
James Tracy, meanwhile, flew in last night to provide cover on the bench and earned his second cap in the final quarter, another positive for Ireland as they look to grow their depth across the squad.
Free scoring
Given how hard Ireland often have to work for their tries – with long spells of possession and grinding phases – it was superb for Schmidt’s men to score rather freely in Rome.
There were certainly multi-phase passages of attack, including the 13 phases that led to Keith Earls’ second try, but Ireland also struck early in their possession at other times, particularly for Craig Gilroy’s hat-trick.
CJ Stander helped himself to three tries as he demonstrated yet again that his ball-carrying is of the highest quality. His second try was almost comical in the way he battered through unwilling tacklers, while Italy fullback Edoardo Padovani didn’t look too interested for Stander’s third.
The fine handling that led to many of the Irish tries being scored out wide will also have pleased Schmidt and his coaches, after that facet of their game had let them down in Murrayfield a week ago.
With Stander and Gilroy leading the way, Italy simply couldn’t cope with Ireland’s try scoring.
O’Shea’s big job
The sense of optimism in Italian rugby after the November win over South Africa is fading fast, after Conor O’Shea’s side followed up last weekend’s defeat against Wales with this heavy defeat.
Italy looked like a side that has made no progress at all in this championship as they conceded nine tries on home soil.
O’Shea was realistic about the defeat afterwards, with many of the Italian journalists asking how he can build better structures to ensure a more competitive national team. The head coach agreed that there is lots of work to be done there, but stressed that his team must have ambitious short-term goals too.
The Irishman must be realising more and more how demanding a task that second part is.
His organisational acumen should allow Italian rugby to make developmental strides in the coming years, but it’s debatable whether this current squad is good enough to compete consistently.
Next up for the Italians is a clash with England in round three and it’s hard to see how O’Shea’s men can even come close to an upset there.
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