Ireland 36 Italy 6:FOR ONCE the cardiac team decided not to put themselves or the rest of us through the wringer. They had to stick to their gameplan, stay patient and keep their composure in the midst of the Azzurri's fiery Latin mix of Italian and Argentinian temperaments, but they did so impressively.
Putting such a proud rugby team to the sword in Italy’s own generation-defining, win-or-bust World Cup pool finale, and doing so by three tries to nil and by 30 points is no mean achievement.
A red rag having been waved in front of them by Nick Mallett, the Irish front-row and the rest of the pack drew the lines in the sand at the first two scrums.
Although one of Italy’s two three-pointers emanated from their one strong scrum of the night, the combined double whammy of losing their totemic tight-head Martin Castrogiovanni and having the chance of an equalising penalty reversed on half-time effectively ended their resistance. But it was only a question of time, for by then only one bad decision by Jonathan Kaplan had denied Tommy Bowe a try under the posts.
The original Italian penalty on half-time, like their other three-pointer, was reward for their impressive maul, but that was their lot, and once Ireland broke through once, the dam predictably burst, Ireland’s ruthlessly clinical 17-point salvo at the start of the second half putting Italy to the sword.
Ireland’s game plan worked a treat, launching the likes of Paul O’Connell, Seán O’Brien and Stephen Ferris hard up the middle and earning the right to go wide. The unrelenting intensity and tempo of their work eventually wore Italy down and the backs, heretofore forced to play in the wet, cut loose with three handsome tries. And there ought, by rights, to have been another two.
O’Brien had another huge game, and probably led Ireland’s carrying and tackling stats, with at least 14 of the former and ten of the latter. As well as his dynamic carrying and ability to knock the first-up tackler sprawling, his line speed in defence was superb as he operated as a lone shooter to great effect. Closely following him, and often in close proximity again, Stephen Ferris was utterly ferocious and unrelenting in contact.
Meantime, it has to be said, Jamie Heaslip again played selflessly but highly effectively with the close-in nitty gritty, as did Rory Best, Donncha O’Callaghan and the rest of them. Declan Kidney was utterly vindicated in his selection of Conor Murray, who added a hard-running presence close in as well as being all over Sergio Parisse, along with O’Brien.
Ditto the recall for Ronan O’Gara, who augmented his sound generalship with a haul of six from seven, his one miss coming off the post.
Generally too, Ireland kept their cool. Although Cian Healy was penalised for a retaliatory punch at the Azzurri hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, the episode seemed to anger the rest of the team and the crowd as much as Healy, with O’Brien putting in another thumping hit in midfield when Italy attacked up the middle from the resulting lineout.
Then came Italy’s double whammy of losing Castrogiovanni and having a penalty reversed.
But although the Azzurri were wonderfully resilient, Ireland had played most of the penetrating rugby and had been in the zone from the off with a bright, focused start. O’Brien’s sharp advance to tackle Luciano Orquera forced an offload and in turn Quintin Geldenhuys passed forward. Mike Ross and co thus put in two big scrums on each put-in to calm any frayed nerves on that score, and Ireland kept an impressive shape and depth on their running game.
When Gonzalo Canale took Gordon D’Arcy out off the ball, O’Gara landed a superb 40 metre penalty from near the left touchline. Whatever Declan Kidney may have said, that was one of the reasons he was recalled.
The two kickers would exchange further penalties to leave it six-all and Ireland lost a little accuracy but stayed entrenched, O’Brien making another burst, offloaded to Tommy Bowe, who had taken a great line. Bowe juggled but held on to run under the posts and touch down only for Kaplan to wrongly adjudge O’Brien’s offload forward. An ensuing O’Gara three pointer for side entry at a ruck was scant consolation as the 9-6 lead should have been 13-6.
Undeterred, Ireland started the second half as they did the first, punching hard and direct with the big carriers before Andrea Lo Cicero was pinged for not rolling away after tackling Paul O’Connell, who carried a ton of ball with his usual giant heart.
O’Gara made it 12-6 and some superb close-in carrying by Ferris (twice), O’Brien, Best, O’Connell and Ferris again set up O’Gara for an abortive drop goal. For a moment, it seemed, Ireland were almost playing it too much like a cup tie. Not for much longer.
Italy’s poor kicking game enabled the lively and in-form Keith Earls to counter and find Rob Kearney (himself finding his old mojo) infield, and a few recycles later Bowe curved around Mauro Bergamasco on the outside and straightened to pick out Brian O’Driscoll, who had cut back on an inside line for a smart finish. O’Gara converted.
Cue The Fields, and soon it was all over bar the singing. D’Arcy, running into form with a run of games, bounced Canale to bust the blue line and after some good carries, notably Ferris again, the ball was moved left to O’Driscoll and Ferris took a tackle and offloaded one-handed for Earls to score in the corner. O’Gara even bisected the posts down the middle with the touchline conversion.
The cheap shots continued, Parisse taking D’Arcy out off the ball with a shoulder charge which left D’Arcy completely winded and then plaintively looking at touchjudge Chris Pollock.
Bowe was again denied a try after a fantastic 70 metre foot rush down field, leaving the Azzurri back three for dead only for Tommaso Benvenuti to tackle him before he could ground the ball. No penalty try was given by the TMO, but you almost felt that Ireland would atone for that injustice even though there was less than a minute on the clock, and they duly did.
Andrew Trimble, barely on, broke the blue line and teed up Earls for what is now almost a trademark finish along the left touchline in a reprise of his try against the Russians. It was his fourth of the tournament and tenth in 25 Tests.
The kid has wheels alright, and right now so do Ireland.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins O’Gara pen 3-0; 11 mins Mirco Bergamasco pen 3-3; 17 mins O’Gara pen 6-3; 21 mins Bergamasco pen 6-6; 35 mins O’Gara pen 9-6; (half-time 9-6); 43 mins O’Gara pen 12-6; 47 mins O’Driscoll try, O’Gara con 19-6; 52 mins Earls try, O’Gara con 26-6; 70 mins Sexton pen 29-6; 80 mins Earls try, Sexton con 36-6.
IRELAND: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster) (capt), G D’Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster); R O’Gara (Munster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster); D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster); S Ferris (Ulster), S O’Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster) for Best (54 mins), D Ryan (Munster) for O’Connell (59 mins), J Sexton (Leinster) for O’Gara (67 mins), T Court (Ulster) for Healy, D Leamy (Munster) for Ferris, E Reddan (Leinster) for Murray, A Trimble (Ulster) for O’Driscoll (all 74 mins).
ITALY: A Masi (Aironi); T Benvenuti (Treviso), G Canale (Clermont), G Garcia (Treviso), Mirco Bergamasco (Racing Metro); L Orquera (Aironi), F Semenzato (Treviso); S Perugini (Aironi), L Ghiraldini (Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester); Q Geldenhuys (Aironi), C van Zyl (Treviso); A Zanni (Treviso), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais), S Parisse (Stade Francais) (capt). Replacements: A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro) for Castrogiovanni (37 mins), R Bocchino (Estra I Cavalieri Prato) for Orquera (h-t), P Derbyshire (Treviso) for Mauro Bergamasco (49 mins), E Gori (Treviso) for Semenzato (57 mins), M Bortolami (Aironi) for van Zyl (61 mins), F Ongaro (Aironi) for Ghiraldini (66 mins), L McLean ( Treviso) for Parisse (77 mins).
Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa)
