Ireland finish with second-half flourish

Women's Six Nations Championship/ Ireland 19 Italy 0: St Mary's provided the starter for this year's Six Nations Championship with a more delicate dish, to be sure, than what is on offer today in Croke Park.

Not as much muscle or grunt - still, the women whetted the appetite for what lies ahead this weekend in the first of their Six Nations Championship matches.

A crisp, cold, breezy day in Templeogue with wind blowing directly down the pitch from goal to goal made life a little more difficult for the Irishwomen than they might have liked.

What the well-padded-looking Italians thought of the ice-breeze probably beggared belief but it was the Irish who were first asked to go into action when the inaudible national anthem left them high and dry.

However, the team fearlessly fronted up and provided their first performance of the weekend with a rousing rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann.

The modest crowd ensured that we caught every word as well as almost every lineout call for the rest of the afternoon. But that is what these gatherings are about. A professional and selfless approach by the players all comes with an amateur twist, even to the point of the ball being tossed from the St Mary's bar by a kindly gentleman as the players haplessly stood around looking for something to kick.

Seeking this year to outstrip last season's achievement of a win against Scotland and Italy, Grand Slam or Triple Crown ambitions are for now a little out of reach with teams like perennial winners England involved. But yesterday's performance that swung from a barren first half of 0-0 to a one-way second, where Ireland ran in tries through Cooke hooker Jess Limbert and Blackrock lock and flanker Germaine Healy and Sinead Ryan, was satisfying enough for 19 points.

Indeed this Irish side took something out of Welsh coach Warren Gatland's style of selecting. Not quite the one-club monopoly that he press-ganged, Ireland nonetheless were propped up by two principal clubs. The starting line-up was a cocktail of six parts Blackrock, five parts UL Bohemians and a dash of Cooke, Richmond and Highfield.

Gatland's ghost was there but that of Eddie O'Sullivan was not. At 19-0 up coach John O'Sullivan did something that might send shivers down the spine of the less blasé Irish coach. He emptied the bench with 10 minutes to go as Ireland rollicked to what was in the end a straightforward and rather handy win, even if the side had, over the first 40 minutes, managed to make it more laboured and difficult than it needed to be.

That first half was full of what might have been as well as a couple of "oops" moments for the home side. In conceding territory for the first quarter they showed defensive fortitude. But when Italy hit two accurate kicks short on yards the Azzurri alarm bells must have sounded.

With the wind on their backs, the 22-metre line really should not have been out of reach.

When Ireland finally entered the match after 15 minutes, they also did so with kid gloves.

With the pack dominating from scrum and lineout two pushover opportunities went a-begging deep in Italy's territory. Then on their third effort, which looked richly like producing the first try, the referee judged that the ball was crooked in.

Inevitably the home team put those wrongs right after the turn with the wind on their backs and the sun also aiding and abetting the effort by occasionally blinding the Italians as it sank behind the Irish posts.

Limbert benefited from the pack effort with a pushover touchdown on 47 minutes.

Healy benefited from a mazy run from Lynne Cantwell close to the posts on 55 minutes. And Ryan benefited from a Jo O'Sullivan break on the hour. A team effort all round.

IRELAND: SJ Belton; L Cantwell, P Kelly, S Houston, G Davitt; J O'Sullivan, T Rosser; F Coghlan, J Limbert, M Barrett; C Mahon, G Healy; E O'Sullivan, S Ryan, O Brennan. Replacements: G Bourke for Barrett (60 mins), A Davis for Belton, L Austin for Ryan, L Beamish for Rosser (all 71 mins), Y Nolan for Limbert, K O'Loughlin for Mahon (both 74 mins).

ITALY: M Tondinelli; S Pizatti, P Zangirolami, Veronica Schiavon, A Mariani; Valentina Schiavon, Elisa Facchini; M Sanfillipo, E Cucchiella, F Severin; D Gini, M Barbini; S Pettinelli, S Gaudino, G Campanella.

Referee: D Walker(Scotland).