ANDY FARRELL THOUGHT Robert Baloucoune’s score for Ireland against Italy yesterday was “as good a try as we’ve ever scored.”

It was a flowing score that started at an Irish lineout five metres inside their own half and ended with right wing Baloucoune delivering an emphatic final note.

Across 79 seconds, Ireland went through eight phases of skillful high-tempo rugby, with 14 of the 15 Irish players touching the ball at least once in the slick passage.

Jack Conan was the only man not to touch the ball, but he ran some excellent lines and contributed off-the-ball work to a sequence that featured a whopping 31 passes from Ireland.

Having only just come onto the pitch as a replacement for Sam Prendergast, out-half Jack Crowley combined fluidly with scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park to direct the attack with purpose as the pieces around them clicked smoothly into place.

“The flow, the continuity, the speed of it,” said Ireland boss Farrell when asked what he liked about the try.

“The want to call the play that we wanted to happen, rather than just settle for something that was conservative, or setting stuff up and being able to play to space early, and Jack was at the forefront of that.”

So let’s dive into the details of an Irish score that ultimately helped them to win this absorbing Six Nations game.

Having turned the ball over at a lineout just a minute before, Ireland go with a banker ball by throwing to Caelan Doris on the ground at the front of the lineout.

Knowing that Italy will be keen to compete for another turnover, Ireland make a simple, smart call to use Doris and get the ball quickly in and out of the lineout.

From there, Ireland run a nice strike play to get over the gainline on first phase.

Crowley [red below] might be the obvious recipient of Gibson-Park’s pass initially, but left wing James Lowe [blue] comes forward to take an accurate, speedy ball from the scrum-half. 

Rather than taking the ball to the defensive line, Lowe almost immediately turns to his right to pass to inside centre Stuart McCloskey, skipping Crowley as the out-half gets in motion behind McCloskey.

Lowe can’t waste time because he has lots of ground to cover as he will swing all the way outside Crowley, who is going to take a pullback pass from McCloskey.

Essentially, Ireland want to sit down Italy’s midfield defence and get Lowe outside them.

To do this, McCloskey [pink below] takes the ball to the line with number eight Jack Conan [yellow] running a short line outside him as Crowley [red] bounces out the back of Conan.

McCloskey times his pass well after running square to engage the defender in front of him, Italy out-half Paolo Garbisi.

And now Ireland repeat the same shape a little wider, with Crowley [red below] squaring up to the defence, outside centre Garry Ringrose [yellow] running a short line off Crowley, and Lowe [blue] bouncing out the back of Ringrose. 

Ringrose times his run well as Crowley does a good job of engaging Italy inside centre Leonardo Marin before timing the release of his pass ideally, which all means that Italy outside centre Tommaso Menoncello sits down on Ringrose’s line.

That gives Lowe time to get outside Menoncello, who has to work hard to recover out onto the Ireland left wing.

With Italy left wing Monty Ioane sitting off Lowe and Italy fullback Lorenzo Pani closing up from the backfield, Lowe opts to carry and give Ireland a decent first-phase gain.

As Ireland now play back to their left off Lowe’s carry, we can see the shape that has formed around Crowley [red below].

Crowley has Conan [yellow above] offering an inside passing option, while there is a pod of four forwards [pink] outside Crowley, with McCloskey [blue] set up in the boot behind that pod.

Italy obviously want to bring aggressive linespeed now to win back momentum here but Ireland’s decision-making denies the Italians a dominant hit.

Danilo Fischetti is the Italian defender looking to make that dominant shot and he initially lines up Rónan Kelleher [pink below], who is the second player in the Irish 4-pod and the most obvious recipient of Crowley’s pass.

But Crowley instead whips his pass one wider to Doris.

That means Fischetti has to adjust out late. He’s still right on top of Doris but the adjustment buys the Irish skipper an extra split second, as he shows a wonderful flash of skill to get the ball away to McCloskey before he’s hit.

McCloskey now has some time on the ball to run at the Italian defence before passing to second row Tadhg Beirne, who makes a quick transfer under pressure from Garbisi.

Beirne’s pass is down low and his second row partner, James Ryan, does well to take it before carrying.

Despite not making the gainline, Ireland have quick, clean ball to play with.

Crowley swings to the left of the ruck and sends McCloskey into a positive carry.

With Crowley needed at the breakdown over McCloskey’s carry, the next phase doesn’t involve the Irish out-half.

So Ireland use a 3-pod of forwards off Gibson-Park.

Beirne is in the middle of the pod and he’s running square at the line, which engages Italy’s Manuel Zuliani directly in front of him.

With the defender on the inside of Zuliani, Michele Lamaro, lagging slightly behind, Beirne opts for a tip-in pass to Kelleher.

Kelleher briefly thinks about offloading to Ryan,  but there’s no clear opening, so the Irish hooker wisely hangs onto the ball for another quick recycle. This carry serves to shorten Italy’s defence line on Ireland’s right, meaning they can’t get as much linespeed.

So Ireland get to width on fifth phase, with Crowley working intelligently off the ball.

As Kelleher carries, we can see Crowley is scanning the shortside for any openings there.

But he notes that Italy have three defenders on their feet there, so he starts swinging to the other side of the breakdown, communicating as he goes.

Over on that right side of the breakdown, Ringrose [yellow below] has set up as the back in behind a forming 3-pod of forwards [pink].

But we can see that Crowley [red] is communicating to Ringrose that he will get into that slot, allowing Ringrose to shift into a different role slightly wider.

Gibson-Park is already beginning to pass to loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman in the 3-pod as this is happening, highlighting how fluid Ireland are here.

And everything falls into place nicely as Loughman sweeps a vertical pass behind tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong to the arriving Crowley, who goes behind the decoy-running Conan to Ringrose, who deftly tips to fullback Jamie Osborne, who deftly tips to Baloucoune.

It’s a slick chain of Irish passes to get outside the Italian defence.

The final pass isn’t as accurate, though, with Baloucoune delaying slightly as he focuses on fully fixing the closing Pani.

Lowe ends up flat as the Baloucoune pass dips, but he does very well to control the ball, scoop it up, and surge upfield past two attempted tackles.

Lowe builds even more momentum with his aggressive carry, which is helped by a dummy offload over Zuliani.

Furlong clears out Menoncello as he has a sniff at the breakdown poach, and Ireland swing the ball left for another chain of short passes.

Crowley [red above] is set up in the boot behind the 3-pod [pink], while McCloskey [blue] hovers behind the 2-pod [also pink] in midfield.

Crowley’s ability to catch-pass under pressure is key here because Italy’s Lamaro goes hunting him with aggressive linespeed.

Loughman sweeps out the back to Crowley and as we see below, Lamaro nearly gets to him to stop the ball there, only for Ireland’s out-half to beat him with his quick hands.

McCloskey fixes a defender before passing, then Osborne again shows quick hands to get the ball away to Ringrose.

Blindside flanker Cormac Izuchukwu is probably thinking he’s going to have a good shot at finishing for Ireland, but the last pass in the chain is inaccurate again.

With Italy wing Louis Lynagh closing up on him, Ringrose has to get the ball across his body quickly and can’t generate enough power in his pass to fizz the ball straight to Izuchukwu, who is a good 10 metres away.

The pass tails off and Izuchukwu has to show good handling skills to gather it before accelerating into space as Italy scramble across.

Ringrose makes a good clearout to allow Ireland continue their high-tempo attack and they throw another different picture at the Italians.

Ireland play off 10 from the touchline breakdown, with Ryan in the middle of the pod.

He’s the obvious recipient of Crowley’s pass, which is exactly how Italy hooker Giacomo Nicotera reads the play.

But Crowley instead fires the ball one wider to Beirne at the edge of the 3-pod.

That allows Beirne to run into the space Nicotera leaves on his outside shoulder.

Ryan and Doris are quickly on the scene to clearout Zuiliani as he desperately looks for a turnover.

Indeed, despite being off his feet, Zuiliani can’t resist playing the ball. Referee Hollie Davidson signals a penalty advantage for Ireland.

The advantage gives Ireland the freedom to try a big play and McCloskey delivers exactly that.

Gibson-Park hits Furlong, who drops the ball off to Crowley, who passes short to McCloskey.

As McCloskey receives the ball, Menoncello is on top of him and Garbisi has advanced upfield in a bid to shut down McCloskey’s ability to pass wider.

Rather than simply tucking the ball and carrying, McCloskey comes up with a delightfully creative solution.

Using his 6ft 4ins height and big mitts to maximum effect, the Irish centre brings the ball overhead in his right hand and lofts an American football-style pass over Garbisi to Baloucoune.

“I mess around in the gym with the ball in one hand,” said McCloskey after the game. “I play rugby with the ball in one hand a lot. It was a nice dry day. You can offload a lot more when it’s dry like that. It was penalty advantage, so that would take a wee bit of heat off if it went wrong.”

It’s an inventive bit of skill from one of Ireland’s most in-form players and it leaves Baloucoune suddenly in space.

And yet, while the space is clear in the image below, it still takes a special finish.

Baloucoune is a good 20 metres out here and Italy fullback Pani [red above] is in front of him, while two Italian defenders could close in on the Irish wing from either side.

But he accelerates dynamically into the space, getting up to high speed very quickly and giving himself a chance to step Pani.

Pani does get a grip onto Baloucoune but it lasts only a split second as the Irish wing shows power and balance to break that tackle attempt, then fire up a left-hand fend at the retreating Lorenzo Cannone and dot down with his right.

It’s an outstanding finish that highlights the sheer athleticism that Baloucoune possesses, which Ireland were keen to reintegrate.

Baloucoune’s score sent Ireland into a lead that they never gave up. Though there were many frustrating moments in attack yesterday, it all came together for this try.

“It feels class,” said captain Doris of this passage.

“You’re playing from instincts as opposed to being in your head too much.”

Ireland will look for more of the same in Twickenham next weekend.