IRELAND BOSS ANDY Farrell hailed his side’s character after they earned a 34-20 bonus-point win over Italy in Rome to continue their bid for a Grand Slam.
Farrell’s side had some hairy moments in the second half of the Six Nations clash at Stadio Olimpico, with Italy close to equalising before Mack Hansen’s second try gave Ireland some breathing room for the closing minutes.
Five Irish tries in total make it three bonus-point wins from three in the championship so far and Farrell expressed his pleasure at coming out on the right side against an energetic, incisive, and physical Italian side.
“We’re obviously very pleased to come away with the bonus-point win and a W actually because we played against a good side today and we’ve known that for a good while now,” said Farrell.
“That was a proper Test match. Yes, we can say that we were off in certain parts but like any Test match, the opposition’s always going to have a say in how the game unfolds and they had a big say.
“I thought they were very resilient. It must have been a real tough battle in the forwards, they were solid as far as the ball was concerned, their goal-line defence kept us out time and time again and on the back of that, they cut us open quite a few times with their attack.
“When you talk about the game in that fashion, to come away with the bonus-point win, we’ll take that and move on.”
Farrell stressed that Ireland need to be more clinical in taking their chances than they were today, citing a couple of knock-ons when they could have scored through James Lowe and Bundee Aki.
But he insisted that he was pleased with the grit his side showed in the face of the excellent challenge from Italy.
“They don’t go away any more, do they?” said Farrell of the Italians.
“They continue to fight, we knew that was going to happen again in the second half after the little bit of a piggyback we gave them with the try before half-time.
“They showed the character of staying with it; certainly in the first two games of this competition anyway and so in that regard, the best part of our game was staying in. The bench was excellent coming on. Nice and calm, accurate and added to the performance which was great.
“I thought we showed great character actually, to just keep playing our game.
“We found a way. With 15, 20 minutes to go we found a way to keep getting over the gainline, keep asking some questions and the final try we scored was a class, character-type try. The character of the last 20 minutes was really pleasing.”
Farrell praised the performance of out-half Ross Byrne on his first Six Nations start, as well as how he led the team during the build-up.
It was a tricky afternoon for the Irish midfield in defence after Bundee Aki moved to outside centre when Garry Ringrose was ruled out through injury yesterday. Byrne, Stuart McCloskey, and Aki and McCloskey had their hands full as the Italian attack ran at them.
“Some good, some improving to do,” said Farrell of his midfield combination. “I thought defensively we were a bit off at times, certainly set-piece wise, etc. Some brilliant in that regard.
“Stu and Bundee individually made some good inroads. It’s a new partnership coming together with a new half-back partnership. It’s always going to be tested under pressure when you are playing against a good side like that.
“But I thought they came through the game pretty well all-in-all. I thought we missed one or two chances that we need to review and realise, so there’s always room for improvement there.”
Unfortunately, there is a fresh injury concern for Ireland after tighthead prop Finlay Bealham was forced off in the first half.
“He twisted his knee, obviously he went down straight away, which says something, doesn’t it?” said Farrell of Bealham.
“He tried his best to fight on. He’s in a brace there in the changing room, he says he’s fine but he always says that, so we will assess him again in the morning.”
More happily, Farrell expects to have the likes of Ringrose, captain Johnny Sexton, and a few more back from injury for the Scotland clash in two weekends’ time.
“We’re three from three and have 15 points so we’re where we want to be,” said Farrell.
“We’ve got lads on the mend coming back into the mix for the final two weeks of the campaign.”
