Rugby: Of all the Six Nations teams Ireland would have wanted to engage in trench warfare, the rugged Azzurri would possibly have been bottom of their list.Accordingly, exhausted Irish players talked of a post-match dressingroom more akin to a casualty ward and, almost inevitably, the foot soldiers carried most of the scars.
Uppermost amongst these was, alas, Keith Gleeson, whose fractured arm was confirmed yesterday, thereby ruling him out for an estimated eight weeks. In effect, therefore, his season looks to be over, and it's even touch and go for the two-test tour to South Africa in June.
More pressingly, and depressingly for him, he is ruled out of Saturday's tilt at Scotland and the Triple Crown at Lansdowne Road; a cruel blow for a player who has contributed so much to Ireland's run of three wins.
The Ulster backrow pair of openside Neil McMillen and number eight Roger Wilson were promoted to the 32-man squad which convened in Ireland's Citywest base last night after an afternoon off, along with Anthony Horgan and Gavin Duffy, to the exclusion of Neil Doak and Darren Yapp from the squad on duty a week ago.
Nevertheless, David Wallace still seems the likeliest candidate for a place in the 22-man squad to face Scotland, though Eddie O'Sullivan and the Ireland management may prefer to promote Victor Costello from the bench and switch Simon Easterby to openside, where he has played for Llanelli.
Any combination ought to do against the bottom-of-the-table Scots, who are facing the ignominy of a whitewash and a wooden spoon in Matt Williams's first season, judging by their toothless defeat to France yesterday.
France won a soulless Sunday afternoon affair 31-0 at a canter; the first time in 26 years the Scots had been held scoreless at Murrayfield. The defence and lineout stood up pretty well, limiting the dominant French to just three tries, but the zero part was never really in doubt until the last minute.
The result leaves France within one match of an eighth Grand Slam (and fourth in the last eight years) if they can beat England in Saturday night's championship finale in Stade de France. To win the championship, a malfunctioning England would have to beat France by eight points or more.
The weekend's results have probably contrived to put the title beyond Ireland's reach, for even if England do win in Paris by eight points or more, Ireland would have to beat Scotland by more than 50 points. Nevertheless, there is the prize of a seventh Triple Crown and first since 1985 to aim for by beating the Scots, as well as another runners-up spot (which would be Ireland's third in four years).
The currency of Triple Crowns may have been devalued a tad in recent times, what with the advent of Italy to the championship, and in years when they don't win the Grand Slam, England hardly make much of it. But for the players and O'Sullivan, it would probably constitute the high point of their careers to date.
"Winning a Triple Crown would be great for us because we don't do it very often," said O'Sullivan. "It's such a rare event in our history and it does mean England, Scotland and Wales in one season, which is a hard thing to do. It's a nice cherry on the cake for us; it's not the greatest thing in the world but still it would be a great way to finish the Six Nations and a good reflection of a hard year's work well done."
In the cold light of day, so to speak, Ireland's players may re-evaluate their verdict that Saturday's capricious conditions were the worst they've played in. After all, they had last year's autumnal aquaplaning against Australia and Argentina in Lansdowne Road, before locating typhoons in Australia for the games against Romania and Namibia (even Melbourne's head-to-head with Australia was only saved by the roof). There's no chance JP McManus or some other good-natured soul would donate a roof for the redeveloped Lansdowne Road?
At some point on Saturday morning, Girvan Dempsey woke up and didn't even have to pull back the blinds. As the wind and rain lashed against the window in his Berkeley Court Hotel, he thought to himself "not a day for full backs or hookers." Or for props, locks, backrowers, backs or spectators for that matter.
Those in the Havelock Square end of the ground may as well have watched the match from Mars, given there wasn't even a big screen at the far end, and probably would have been a damn sight more comfortable too. And even those in the south terrace had the decidedly mixed blessing of not only the game being blown toward them but the second-half downpour as well.
"You had to put a big ask on the skills," observed Declan Kidney. "I would imagine it would have been difficult to score there playing unopposed rugby.
"Our first goal was to win and we never lost sight of that. Some days it doesn't work out as pretty as others, like the golfers who tell you about the 70s and 72s."
Aside from the wind, a 1.30 kick-off is not conducive to a good atmosphere, and coupled with the prize at stake next week, allied to more traditional foes and a 4 pm kick-off, and the occasion will be altogether grander. Furthermore, Welsh official Nigel Williams will surely be inestimably better than Kelvin Deaker.
O'Sullivan made a valid point when claiming there could have been a couple of penalty tries early on after Cristian Stoica and Fabio Ongaro illegally halted Irish mauls. Thereafter, the welter of marginal decisions that went against Italy prompted John Kirwan to remark dryly: "Maybe he ate a bad pasta in New Zealand a month ago. I felt he was quite harsh on us most of the day so I won't be buying him a beer later on I don't think."
