Liam Toland: Ireland got a valuable win despite playing poorly

There's no doubt in my mind that Ireland's intensity will be vastly improved come France in Cardiff. The main question in departing the Olympic Stadium is will this massive surge in intensity a week hence paper over deeper cracks that will be exposed later in the tournament? I think not; Ireland played badly and in beating Italy they thought their way through a minefield of problems; most of their own making.

But, at scrumhalf, Conor Murray focused on what needed to be done and shared the box-kicking duties with his outhalf and simply secured the priority, ie winning, by pinning Italy in their own 22. The video session will be horrible – and the positive reaction should be ferocious.

As the game unfolded Ireland’s defensive patterns held but were extremely passive. On 33 minutes Italy had a scrum on their left hand side yards outside their 22. It hardly seemed an attacking option. But they did exactly that by getting the ball into their midfield.

The first engagement with green jerseys, however, was all the way on the right hand side and a full 25 metres forward from where the scrum occurred. I found myself wondering was this a Joe Schmidt tactic? Did Ireland decide to be passive with the intention of 'fooling' the French next week? Were they conscious that Italy may trouble them at times but were hardly going to open us up and hence a lesser performance was acceptable?

Flip side

I think not as half-time clearly brought with it instructions to get off the line. This Ireland did and began to engage on the gainline or at times – such as with Iain Henderson’s 44 minute block-down – well beyond the gain line. This temporarily improved much of Ireland’s play in stifling the Italians. On the flip side it had the opposite effect on their attack.

Yes the try was sublime (more on that anon) but Ireland’s resorting to a high impact aerial option in lieu of quality attack is of greater concern. Why were Italy making hits well behind our gainline?

In openside Simone Favaro the Italians had a marvellous battler and awesome tackler. He made hit after hit and his team -mates followed suit.

Energy can be found in many places, such as pre-season training, but witnessing Favaro’s monster hits gave Italy belief; so, too, Ireland’s lack of cutting edge.

So back to the try. The best attacking platform is often off stolen lineouts. Italian hooker Andrea Manici, who struggled from touch, targeted his talisman captain Sergio Parisse. The Italian number eight took on huge responsibility especially as first receiver but Peter O’Mahony, who had a fine, battling, ball-carrying performance, read perfectly in stealing at the front. This stolen ball, deep inside Italy territory has two aspects.

Firstly as the Italians are momentarily confused, transitioning from an exit strategy into defence they are vulnerable but only if Ireland recognise the opportunity and exploit same. Ireland did! Johnny Sexton hit the gainline with options inside and out. Having found Robbie Henshaw it was wonderful to see Keith Earls’ winger instincts came into play in picking his aggressive line to get over. So Ireland can do it; but why not more often and against Italian opposition?

That's the second point. On 55 minutes Dave Kearney found himself carrying into heavy traffic 30 metres from the Italian try line. To avoid being swallowed up he darted infield on an angled run. This of course forces defenders to decide and maybe take the wrong option in doubling up thus leaving a hole. There were three Irish support runners but from my vantage point it was clear they had preconditioned their role into ensuring protection of the soon-to-occur breakdown. This is admirable but for a fleeting moment gaps in the Italian defence were opening but the support runners were not asking the question so Kearney had no one to pop a soft pass to. Ireland however, did gain a valuable three points from the penalty.

The second big lineout steal on our 10-metre line got Ireland flowing wide until there was a fumble. Irish turnovers by a growing penalty count are frustrating – so too this fumble as earlier we punished Italy hugely with Earls' try. This time the fumble invited Italy and secondrow Josh Furno onto our try line. Had Furno transferred the ball into his outside hand he may well have fended off the excellent O'Mahony last-ditch tackle.

So, added intensity will improve our defence and attack accordingly. Allied to our aerial game, we will continue to provide stiff tests in this tournament. However our lineout maul has drifted backwards over recent weeks where both Romania and Italy failed to be subdued.

Time and again Paul O’Connell ignored three points for a lineout try. The quality of the set-up, length and height of the maul must improve – with a more violent attack over the maul’s gainline to gain momentum. And all before the referee calls time.

So back to my PhD. As we face France this weekend with three victories under our belt, I note that Ireland will have the best team available to it come Cardiff this Sunday and beyond. This team will also have the best game plan available to it.

Contrast that to England’s performance over the past two matches. Did they have their best team on the pitch? Did they have the best game plan? This is small comfort to us but it does highlight the vast chasm between our neighbours and ourselves; we got a valuable win in the Olympic Stadium while playing poorly; see you in Cardiff.

liamtoland@yahoo.com