Farrell’s team gets the bonus in 35 minutes, but the Azzurri remain attached to the match until the 71st minute
Pierre Bruno in action in Italy-Ireland – ph. Sebastian Pessina
Azzurri fans can once again be proud of Italy’s performance against world number one Ireland at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
The scoreboard says 20-34 and speaks of a new honorable defeat, of course, but raise your hand who expected an Italy at stake to win the game for 71 minutes, until Mack Hansen closed it on a cue brilliant by expert Conor Murray.
The first 20 minutes were Irish-branded, with the away team scoring with virtually every possession they had available. Quality makes the difference in offshore one-on-ones, where the Irish physical and athletic qualities, triggered by previous excellent hands, make the difference.
Italy meanwhile score a splendid try through Varney after a break by Lorenzo Cannone, brought into action by a good reading from Garbisi and looks dangerous with every possession available, provided you manage to keep him in the meeting points constantly questioned by Ireland.
Season with a little indiscipline and here in the 35th minute Hansen scores the first of his two tries to give the greens the bonus and the lead on 10-24.
Just when Ireland seemed to be in control of the match, however, on the last ball of the first half Pierre Bruno brilliantly read the opponent’s play and placed a vital interception which brought the Azzurri back to -7 at the interval.
The second half is a completely different game, with the two teams scoring 3 points each in the first 25 minutes.
In the 52nd minute McCloskey tackles Capuozzo high and perhaps a yellow card is missing from the Irish 12 in the circumstance, but Italy goes into the offensive zone and brings home the football 20-24. The pressure is now all on the opposing team, who stop moving the ball and play a much more tactical game, with far fewer risks.
In the 64th minute Byrne made a comeback with a central goal from 40 metres, but immediately afterwards Italy had the equaliser. Brex puts Pettinelli in an internal corridor, the 20 of the Azzurri carries the ball up to 5 meters. Two stages later Brex is again the first standing in a situation of numerical superiority off the coast, but his kick for Ruzza deployed on the wing is too powerful and the opportunity goes away bitterly.
The missed acute is the prelude to the conclusion of the game. Italy defends tooth and nail, but is consumed by repeated enemy charges. Murray sees the guards a little spread out near the meeting point, attacks with an arched run, absorbs the contact and bowls an inviting oval for Hansen, who just has to beat Capuozzo one-on-one with all the space in the world at his disposal .
In the final, Italy didn’t give up, but still got something wrong and couldn’t be really dangerous. Indeed, on the last ball he risks conceding another try, with Lowe intercepting and flying away, but is stopped just in time by the Azzurri’s defensive cover.
For Ireland an excellent performance from the enlarged triangle, a good offensive performance by an irrepressible Aki and constant work by Kelleher in all the opponents’ meeting points. Italy takes the credit for having pushed the best team in the world to the limit, albeit in a reworked version: excellent offensive performance by Cannone, Brex and Bruno, one of the best matches in recent times by Padovani and a Fischetti who, as long as he could, distributed loud blows in defense.
Italia: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Pierre Bruno, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (C), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone , 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Available: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Edoardo Iachizzi, 20 Giovanni Pettinelli, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Luca Morisi.
Italy markers
Mete: Varney (6), Bruno (40)
Transformations: Garbisi (6, 40)
Free kicks: Garbisi (18, 55)
Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Bundee Aki, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 James Lowe, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Craig Casey, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Caelan Doris, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter
Available: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Tom O’Toole, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Jimmy O’Brien
Goalscorers Ireland
Mete: Ryan (2), Keenan (12), Aki (19), Hansen (35, 71)
Transformations: Byrne (12, 19, 64)
Free Kicks: Byrne (
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