Wolfhounds show the required appetite for the fray

Italy 9 Ireland 28:IT was fairly grim fare on a typically gruesome night of weather at Ravenhill, which presumably kept the crowd fairly sparse along with the game coinciding with events in Cardiff, but Ireland Wolfhounds made light of it all and battled their way to a deserved victory over the Saxons.

The workrate of the pack, which spent long periods of the game on the back foot, with Mick O’Driscoll leading the effort will have pleased coach Eric Elwood even though Ireland often struggled at scrum time.

Ulster centre Nevin Spence and fullback David Kearney also did their growing reputations no harm at all as did Ian Humphreys who ended the game scoring 10 of Ireland’s points with one trademark monster penalty coming early in the second half. Denis Hurley who took Ireland’s opening try with aplomb also impressed.

The Wolfhounds scored from their first attack of the game after just over the minute mark.

Playing directly into the gale, the ball was spun right and though the Saxons had plenty of defenders in place Spence smashed through Manu Tuilagi and took the ball on into the English half before feeding winger Hurley who and made the line at the posts. Humphreys’ conversion just about scraped over the bar.

The Saxons recovered their poise but were unable to make too much impression. Billy Twelvetrees went close to a try just after 15 minutes only for Hurley to appear and superbly wrap the Saxons centre up with a try-saving tackle.

But the Saxons clearly had the edge at scrum time and in some of the collisions and got off the mark when the Wolfhounds were penalised at a ruck and Stephen Myler kicked a 20th minute penalty.

The Wolfhounds, showing greater adventure, kept up the pressure and a great incursion from full back Kearney nearly saw Humphreys score from Kearney’s chip only for the outhalf to knock on with the line in sight.

Still, Ireland did benefit when prop Paul Doran-Jones was then binned at the subsequent scrum and Wolfhounds’ skipper Chris Henry picked up from the scrum and battled his way over near the posts. Humphreys added the conversion via the upright to give Ireland a 14-3 interval lead.

Humphreys then extended Ireland’s lead with a monster 58 -metre penalty five minutes after the restart. But from here, Saxons began to exert their superior firepower up front and after several scrums on Ireland’s line, Wolfhounds prop Brett Wilkinson was binned for dropping the scrum.

Saxons, playing into the rain and wind, finally made the their man advantage count when Ugo Monye got in at the left corner. Myler missed the conversion. However, the Saxons outhalf did add a close-in penalty after 66 minutes to narrow the Wolfhounds’ lead to six points which was as good as things got for them despite upping the ante with a strong finish in the last quarter.

Humphreys nailed his second penalty of the night to seal the Irish victory in the final minute.

IRELAND WOLFHOUNDS: D Kearney; J Murphy, E O’Malley, N Spence, D Hurley; I Humphreys, I Boss; B Wilkinson, D Varley, D Fitzpatrick; D Ryan, M O’Driscoll; M McCarthy, W Faloon, C Henry (capt) Replacements: N Brady, J Hagan, I Nagle, D Ryan, P Marshall, I Keatley, F Carr.

Replacements: J Hagan for M McCarthy (53mins), D Ryan for M McCarthy (63), J Hagan for D Fitzpatrick (67), I Nagle for W Faloon (70). Yellow card: B Wilkinson 52 mins

ENGLAND SAXONS: N Abendanon; J Simpson-Daniel, M Tuilagi, B Twelvetrees, U Monye; S Myler, J Simpson; A Corbisiero, L Mears, P Doran-Jones, G Kitchener, C Day; J Gaskell, C Robshaw (capt), L Narraway Replacements J Buckland, J Marler, G Robson, A Saull, P Hodgson, B Barritt, M Brown. Replacements: J Simpson-Daniel for Marler (35), P Hodgson for Simpson and J Marler for P Doran-Jones (both ht), B Barritt for Twelvetrees (47), A Saull for Narraway (68 mins) Yellow card: P Doran-Jones (25)

Referee: P Gauzere (France