Ciarán Kennedy
reports from the Stadio Olimpico, Rome
THIS IRELAND SQUAD wouldn’t be human if they didn’t feel yesterday was an anti-climax.
The reason 30,000 Irish fans descended on Rome was because they thought they’d be in the Eternal City to witness their team clinch a historic third championship in a row. There’s a reason no side has ever achieved that before and in failing to beat France last weekend, these players knew they had probably lost an opportunity that might only arrive once in their playing careers.
Instead, in Rome they were playing for the slight chance of keeping themselves in the title mix, hoping for others to fluff their lines later in the day.
This perhaps explains why for so much of this 22-17 win, Ireland looked like they didn’t want to be there. Their play was laboured, their energy low, and their body language poor.
Across a disjointed and sloppy first half, Ireland had the tired look of a side still recovering from the experience of finding themselves wrapped up in that ferocious French storm last week. They dropped passes and made poor errors. Garry Ringrose gave away a needless penalty for offside, a surprising mistake for a player of his quality and experience. James Ryan knocked-on after a James Lowe intercept. Mack Hansen, Ireland’s best player on the day, shot out of the defensive line without the necessary clarity and paid the price.
With each of these negative moments, Simon Easterby clenched his jaw a little tighter and squeezed his notepad in frustration. Ireland’s interim head coach doesn’t try mask his emotions in the coaches’ box.
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“It felt like we’d turned a page (from France),” Easterby said.
“Sometimes you try too hard to make those passes stick or make one more pass at the line but credit to Italy, they put us under pressure as well.
“We probably didn’t deal with that pressure as well as we could have done, so we got the five points that we needed but it wasn’t the sort of scoreline that we anticipated, but part of that is down to a little bit of inaccuracy and probably trying too hard to force things that went wrong.”
Ireland looked alarmingly blunt despite reinforcing their backline with the power and class of Lowe, Hansen and Ringrose. With Jack Crowley back in the saddle at 10, Ireland struggled to get the ball wide into the spaces where Lowe and Hansen like to do their damage. The Munster player had some bright moments but this was not the authoritative display he wanted, and three missed conversions were an ugly punctuation mark on his contribution.
Questions around the health of Ireland’s attack have been in the ether since November and despite some bright moments in the earlier rounds of this championship, they haven’t done enough to ease those concerns.
In the face of this Irish apathy, Italy played some brilliant rugby. They will look back and regret not stressing Ireland even more, with careless cards for Michele Lamaro and Ross Vintcent proving damaging. Lamaro saw yellow for an infringement at the breakdown in the first half before Vintcent thundered dangerously into Keenan in the second.
And yet even when down to 14, they pushed Ireland to the edge.
They had been threatening to make this a day to remember for their brilliant home support since they first ripped their visitors open with the speed and accuracy Ireland were striving for in the 12th minute.
Unsurprisingly, the brilliant pairing of Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello were the architects. Brex popped a clever pass to his centre partner who slipped past the onrushing Hansen, shooting out of the line but never looking ready to throw himself into the tackle. Paolo Garbisi weaved forward before chipping through for winger Monty Ioane. Minutes later Menoncello was on the charge again, Italy using a scrum in their own half to crack the Ireland defence with a well-run set play. Italy had ideas and Ireland had no answers.
“It looked a little bit greasy out there at times, guys were slipping a little bit, but they’re a good attacking team, they have the ability,” Easterby said.
“They showed in the French and English performances, they conceded too easily but they attack well. A number of players at the core of their attacking team, 10, 12 and 13, played really well and we didn’t deal with a couple of their threats early on.
“They’ve shown across the Championship, they’ve been good with ball in hand. At times we were good and nullified them. We had to work hard to create some width in the defensive line because they were getting width in the attack, and I thought at times we were really good without the ball.
“But, at other times, if you miss one or two tackles, they have the ability to hurt you and they did.”
An uncomfortable evening was unfolding as Ireland saw a Finlay Bealham try crossed off in the 20th minute, before Hugo Keenan darted through on a smart pass out the back from Crowley.
They would add another through a trademark maul and Dan Sheehan snipe to hold a slim 12-10 lead at the break, by which point Ireland had slipped off 17 of their tackles – a sore point for Easterby post-game.
Ireland needed more but the arm wrestle rumbled on, James Ryan and Lowe playing hot potato over the tryline before Sheehan struck for his second off another maul.
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As with France seven days ago, this had the feel of a moment from which Ireland could drive on, but instead they laboured to an unconvincing end to their championship. Everything felt like an effort, Keenan skipping over from another smart Crowley pass only for the score to be crossed off for a Caelan Doris knock-on.
Ireland were more accurate when they found the bonus-point score approaching the hour, Hansen batting down a Jamison Gibson-Park cross field for Sheehan to run-in his hat-trick try.
Italy lifted their intensity, bringing the contest to just five-points as an Ange Capouzzo chip bounced over the chasing Hansen and into Stephen Varney’s hands.
A tense 20-minutes followed and when Italy finally ran out of time, Ireland looked just happy to get out of there.
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A low-energy end to a Six Nations that promised so much
THIS IRELAND SQUAD wouldn’t be human if they didn’t feel yesterday was an anti-climax.
The reason 30,000 Irish fans descended on Rome was because they thought they’d be in the Eternal City to witness their team clinch a historic third championship in a row. There’s a reason no side has ever achieved that before and in failing to beat France last weekend, these players knew they had probably lost an opportunity that might only arrive once in their playing careers.
Instead, in Rome they were playing for the slight chance of keeping themselves in the title mix, hoping for others to fluff their lines later in the day.
This perhaps explains why for so much of this 22-17 win, Ireland looked like they didn’t want to be there. Their play was laboured, their energy low, and their body language poor.
Across a disjointed and sloppy first half, Ireland had the tired look of a side still recovering from the experience of finding themselves wrapped up in that ferocious French storm last week. They dropped passes and made poor errors. Garry Ringrose gave away a needless penalty for offside, a surprising mistake for a player of his quality and experience. James Ryan knocked-on after a James Lowe intercept. Mack Hansen, Ireland’s best player on the day, shot out of the defensive line without the necessary clarity and paid the price.
With each of these negative moments, Simon Easterby clenched his jaw a little tighter and squeezed his notepad in frustration. Ireland’s interim head coach doesn’t try mask his emotions in the coaches’ box.
“It felt like we’d turned a page (from France),” Easterby said.
“Sometimes you try too hard to make those passes stick or make one more pass at the line but credit to Italy, they put us under pressure as well.
“We probably didn’t deal with that pressure as well as we could have done, so we got the five points that we needed but it wasn’t the sort of scoreline that we anticipated, but part of that is down to a little bit of inaccuracy and probably trying too hard to force things that went wrong.”
Ireland looked alarmingly blunt despite reinforcing their backline with the power and class of Lowe, Hansen and Ringrose. With Jack Crowley back in the saddle at 10, Ireland struggled to get the ball wide into the spaces where Lowe and Hansen like to do their damage. The Munster player had some bright moments but this was not the authoritative display he wanted, and three missed conversions were an ugly punctuation mark on his contribution.
Questions around the health of Ireland’s attack have been in the ether since November and despite some bright moments in the earlier rounds of this championship, they haven’t done enough to ease those concerns.
In the face of this Irish apathy, Italy played some brilliant rugby. They will look back and regret not stressing Ireland even more, with careless cards for Michele Lamaro and Ross Vintcent proving damaging. Lamaro saw yellow for an infringement at the breakdown in the first half before Vintcent thundered dangerously into Keenan in the second.
And yet even when down to 14, they pushed Ireland to the edge.
They had been threatening to make this a day to remember for their brilliant home support since they first ripped their visitors open with the speed and accuracy Ireland were striving for in the 12th minute.
Unsurprisingly, the brilliant pairing of Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello were the architects. Brex popped a clever pass to his centre partner who slipped past the onrushing Hansen, shooting out of the line but never looking ready to throw himself into the tackle. Paolo Garbisi weaved forward before chipping through for winger Monty Ioane. Minutes later Menoncello was on the charge again, Italy using a scrum in their own half to crack the Ireland defence with a well-run set play. Italy had ideas and Ireland had no answers.
“It looked a little bit greasy out there at times, guys were slipping a little bit, but they’re a good attacking team, they have the ability,” Easterby said.
“They showed in the French and English performances, they conceded too easily but they attack well. A number of players at the core of their attacking team, 10, 12 and 13, played really well and we didn’t deal with a couple of their threats early on.
“They’ve shown across the Championship, they’ve been good with ball in hand. At times we were good and nullified them. We had to work hard to create some width in the defensive line because they were getting width in the attack, and I thought at times we were really good without the ball.
“But, at other times, if you miss one or two tackles, they have the ability to hurt you and they did.”
An uncomfortable evening was unfolding as Ireland saw a Finlay Bealham try crossed off in the 20th minute, before Hugo Keenan darted through on a smart pass out the back from Crowley.
They would add another through a trademark maul and Dan Sheehan snipe to hold a slim 12-10 lead at the break, by which point Ireland had slipped off 17 of their tackles – a sore point for Easterby post-game.
Ireland needed more but the arm wrestle rumbled on, James Ryan and Lowe playing hot potato over the tryline before Sheehan struck for his second off another maul.
As with France seven days ago, this had the feel of a moment from which Ireland could drive on, but instead they laboured to an unconvincing end to their championship. Everything felt like an effort, Keenan skipping over from another smart Crowley pass only for the score to be crossed off for a Caelan Doris knock-on.
Ireland were more accurate when they found the bonus-point score approaching the hour, Hansen batting down a Jamison Gibson-Park cross field for Sheehan to run-in his hat-trick try.
Italy lifted their intensity, bringing the contest to just five-points as an Ange Capouzzo chip bounced over the chasing Hansen and into Stephen Varney’s hands.
A tense 20-minutes followed and when Italy finally ran out of time, Ireland looked just happy to get out of there.
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