Italy 20 Ireland 34
As expected, given the absence of half a dozen frontliners from the series win in New Zealand and both new combinations at halfback and in a rearranged midfield, this curate’s egg of an Irish performance was not without its flaws as well as, at times, it’s attacking brilliance.
Nobody epitomised this more than Bundee Aki. He was responsible for five of Ireland’s 24 missed tackles, coughed up the intercept try when Pierre Bruno made a good read of Aki’s intended pass to Ross Byrne wrapping around and left a try behind when knocking on after being knocked to the ground short of the line.
Yet he also scored one try with a very good finish and had a huge creative hand in two of Ireland’s four first-half tries.
For sure, Garry Ringrose’s withdrawal on Friday morning was sorely felt. He excels in that critical defensive position of outside centre. While Aki may have run at 13 in training a little this past week, that could not have prepared him adequately, and he has long since become a 12.
Indeed, all 38 of his previous Test starts for Ireland had been at inside centre. What’s more, this is Italy’s most inventive attacking side ever, one which also stressed both the England and French defences, and were even more potent with the return of Paolo Garbisi and his passing range, with number eight Lorenzo Cannone piercing the green line like an auxiliary centre in that channel.
Yet bearing all this and more in mind, to concede six line breaks and miss those 24 tackles and to only concede two tries – one of which was that intercept – was testimony to Ireland’s defence of their own line.
Admittedly, Italy also left tries behind, most notably when Juan Ignacio Brex curiously opted for, and overcooked, a crosskick with Ireland stretched to break point for Niccolo Cannone. The lock berated him loudly.
By contrast, Ireland were clinical from the off. True, James Lowe failed to ground the ball when tackled by Ange Capuozzo in the first minute after a wonderful line by the outstanding Josh van der Flier on to Aki’s short pass.
But yet again they struck early and off a goal-line restart when Aki offloaded out of a double tackle for Lowe to give skipper James Ryan, who is now playing better than ever, the run-in.
The second was deftly created, Mack Hansen coming off his wing as the link from Ross Byrne’s soft, disguised pullback for Aki to make the line break and link with Hugo Keenan – Bruno and Garbisi falling off him in turn as he pirouetted.
Van der Flier was the instigator in chief for Aki’s finish with another penetrating line off Byrne and McCloskey to link with Lowe again. The bonus-point try, in the 35th minute, was more due to the pack’s route one approach before Craig Casey and McCloskey gave Hansen a run-in.
But although Jack Conan made some strong carries, the forwards struggled to generate go-forward ball, especially after Italy corrected their over commitment to rucks during the interval and filled the pitch. Even Van der Flier was twice stopped dead in his tracks by the strong-tackling Danilo Fischetti.
As Ireland’s attack became more blunt in the early stages of the second half, Casey and Byrne were left to work with some slow, static ball. It needed some big impact off the bench, with Tom O’Toole augmenting a longer shift off the bench due to Finlay Bealham’s misfortune by helping to win two scrum penalties, and most notably from Ryan Baird and the reassuring presence of Conor Murray. It was Murray’s snipe and offload which enabled Hansen to round Capuozzo for the match-sealing fifth try.
Another multiphase try entering the last 10 minutes then, to underline this team’s fitness and ability to execute when fatigued. Akin to the Ringrose try against France, Caelan Doris had twice carried over the gainline in the build-up to Murray’s snipe.
By then Doris had reverted to number eight and it shouldn’t make such a difference really, but it does. For some reason Doris just seems to have more of a ball-carrying impact in multi-phase attacks from eight, even when he’s still wearing six on his back.
As somebody observed, asking Doris to play six is like asking Picasso to paint a fence.
It was curious that prior to this try Ireland had turned down shots at goal with a seven-point lead and the bonus point already secured. Yet, for the future development of this Irish team, to come through such a searching Test and problem solve despite significant depletion was invaluable.
This contributed to Andy Farrell’s good spirits afterwards when noting how his team had dealt with “a brilliant atmosphere”, adding: “The Italian commentary got their crowd going as well. It was 50-50 and they certainly made themselves heard, didn’t they, the Italian crowd.
“And once the pressure comes on and there’s a bit of belief in the stadium from an Italian point of view then that’s the type of pressure that you want to see people under. And understanding that it’s not all going to go your way and still trying to find a way and coming away with a 14-point victory is very pleasing.
“At the same time, they know it was a good win but they’re disappointed with certain aspects because they know they’re better than that as well.”
Specifically regarding the Casey-Byrne axis, Farrell said: “How they ran the week was great and how they made other people aware that they were in charge and that they were always going to be in control. I thought that spilt over into how they controlled and managed the game and did really well.
“So it’s a good one for them to tick off, isn’t it, and know that how they prepare really matters to make sure they’re going to deliver as a halfback partnership. I think it was a priceless one.”
SCORING SEQUENCE – 3 mins: Ryan try 0-5; 7: Varney try, Garbisi con 7-5; 13: Keenan try, Byrne con 7-12; 19: Garbisi pen 10-12; 20: Aki try, Byrne con 10-19; 35: Hansen try 10-24; 40+1: Bruno try, Garbisi con 17-24; (half-time 17-24); 56: Garbisi pen 20-24; 65: Byrne pen 20-27; 71: Hansen try, Byrne con 20-34.
ITALY: Ange Capuozzo (Toulouse); Edoardo Padovani (Benetton), Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton), Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton), Pierre Bruno (Zebre Parma); Paolo Garbisi (Montpellier), Stephen Varney (Gloucester); Danilo Fischetti (London Irish), Giacomo Nicotera (Benetton), Simone Ferrari (Benetton); Niccolò Cannone (Benetton), Federico Ruzza (Benetton); Sebastian Negri (Benetton), Michele Lamaro (Benetton, capt), Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton).
Replacements: Luca Bigi (Zebre Parma) for Nicotera (31-40 mins and 61); Marco Riccioni (Saracens) for Ferrari, Marco Riccioni (Saracens) for Ferrari (both 47), Federico Zani (Benetton) for Fischetti (61); Edoardo Iachizzi (Vannes, Fra) for N Cannone, Giovanni Pettinelli (Benetton) for L Cannone (both 65); Alessandro Fusco (Zebre Parma) for Varney (68), Tommaso Allan (Harlequins) for Garbisi (72), Luca Morisi (London Irish) for Menoncello (78).
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Mack Hansen (Connacht), Bundee Aki (Connacht), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), James Lowe (Leinster); Ross Byrne (Leinster), Craig Casey (Munster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht); Iain Henderson (Ulster), James Ryan (Leinster, capt); Caelan Doris (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Jack Conan (Leinster).
Replacements: Tom O’Toole (Ulster) for Bealham (37 mins); Ryan Baird (Leinster) for Henderson (53); Dan Sheehan (Leinster) for Kelleher, Peter O’Mahony (Munster) for Conan (both 57), Dave Kilcoyne (Munster) for Porter, Conor Murray (Munster) for Casey (both 65), Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster) for McCloskey (72), Jack Crowley (Munster) (78).
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland).
