One miss: Jonathan Sexton
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Ireland warmed up for next weekend's fixture against France by recording a professional 42-10 victory over Italy at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Declan Kidney's side took their time to pull away from the Azzurri but ultimately crossed five times, two of which coming from wing Tommy Bowe.
They next play France in the re-arranged fixture after it was called-off at the last minute a fortnight ago. Italy remain pointless after three defeats.
Ireland had lost their last three outings at the Aviva Stadium and twice turned down shots at goal in favour of going for the maximum as they looked to make a point against their visitors, who took the lead through a penalty from fly-half Tobias Botes.
Sexton replied soon after and then Ireland crossed for their first try of the day following a well-worked move that saw centre Keith Earls dive in.
Italy could have reduced the arrears had Botes been successful from the tee but did find joy when Sergio Parisse crossed under the uprights, with Botes knocking over the simple extras for what looked like the last score of the half.
But that proved not to be the case as Italy were floored when Bowe went over for his first of the game before Sexton made it 17-10 at the break. In truth, neither side had earned a lead.
Upon the turnaround, Sexton added another six points as the Irish established a thirteen-point lead before the home side cut loose, denying Italy any points in the second stanza.
Excellent hands from the impressive Sexton sent Bowe over for his brace as holes began to open in Italy's defence, with Tom Court and Andrew Trimble adding final nails to the coffin.
Man of the match: But for a last-minute miss, Jonathan Sexton was on the money with all of his attempts at goal on Saturday. He added to solid kicking with an assured performance.
Moment of the match: A first international try for Tom Court. The Ulster loosehead prop powered over from all of two metres in Dublin, with his team-mates delighted for him.
Villain of the match: Nothing to report.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Tries: Earls, Bowe 2, Court, Trimble
Con: Sexton 4
Pen: Sexton 3
For Italy:
Tries: Parisse
Con: Botes
Pen: Botes
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell (c), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Peter O'Mahony, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Fergus McFadden.
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Tobias Botes, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Fabio Staibano, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Kris Burton, 22 Gonzalo Canale.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Comments
mcdb06 says...
@D4tress Take the blinkers off. Ridiculous bias. Nice choice of username, typical bandwagon fan who probably never set foot near the RDS before 2009.
Posted 23:41 27th February 2012
curates_egg says...
@melkdave Good selection. Two comments:
(1) switch Trimble and Earls to their respective favoured wings.
(2) I am not sure it is not O'Brien who needs to be dropped. I personally think Heaslip has been doing a lot of good work for Ireland and Leinster this season, whereas O'Brien is now a bit of a one-trick pony.
@norm why oh why would you pick Ferris at 8 for Ireland when he never plays there (unlike O'Brien)?
Posted 22:13 27th February 2012
melkdave says...
Earls is a winger not a center we know it and more importantly so does Earls.He would be a liabilty along with D'Arcy against France imo.Kidney as has been mentioned by numerous posters really has to now throw caution to the wind and experiment a little .I along with most here ?? just cant see an Ireland victory against France in Paris with the present team set up So heres my 15 just for discussion lol
1)Healey 2)Best 3)Ross 4)Ryan 5)O'Connel 6) Ferris 7)O'Mahony 8)O'Brian 9)Redden 10)Sexton 11) Trimble 12)McFadden 13)Bowe 14)Earls 15)Kearney
Posted 14:07 27th February 2012
crunchfit says...
@liam2me
I'm a Leinster fan and I don't think Earls is a good choice for 13 at this level. It has nothing to do with rivalry. It would be idiotic and petty to suggest that. Earls' attacking ability has never been under question and he did very well in that area. However, it is important to remember that Italy are not the greatest defensive team. His defensive ability has always been the issue and he just wasn't tested that much. It is well known that Italy aren't the best offensive team in the 6N, in fact they are probably the worst / second worst.
So, do you really think Earls has silenced and critics? I don't think so. We were just shown what we already know. Perhaps some consistent performances like that against Wales or France might show something, but not this time. I would be more than happy to find someone capable of filling the role, regardless of their club.
Posted 23:09 26th February 2012
carpelone says...
@ macte
Spot on! Masi was poor yesterday and even poorer vs England. I wonder what you have to do to get demoted.
Posted 17:21 26th February 2012
carpelone says...
On the Irish side, it seems that Reddan is a far better player than Murray.
The back row dilemma is there yet, individually all three of them are outstanding, however they do not seem to gel together.
PoC was is usual self, you probably like him if he plays for your team, and you hate him if you are an opponent.
I think that Ireland have still the best efficiency between scoring opportunities and points on the scoreboard. When they enter the 22, they never walk away empty-handed. In this way, similar to the Boks.
Posted 17:19 26th February 2012
curates_egg says...
@liam2me Earls didn't really silence anybody - he did ok against a pretty average Italian midfield but he is not a centre and doesn't like playing there. He even alluded to this again this week in his IRFU interview. He could be a real liability against Fofana and Rougerie next week.
His strike rate is great though. We have lots of good wingers right now (also the young players in the waiting in the wings) and Earls is one of them. He has still to convince at centre though - and I personally don't think he is one (Earls himself seems to agree).
Great performances from Kearney, Sexton and Ferris, as everyone else has noted Ryan, Reddan and O'Mahony made a big difference. Hard to understand why Ryan and Reddan didn't start. Hopefully Fr Declan will give them the nod next week. O'Brien had another limited performance. O'Mahony is probably worth a start in one of the games (although not in Stade de France) but he is also not a 7.
Posted 16:00 26th February 2012
adamk says...
@hermes The days of kicking for field position are over. You can see how it completely killed us against Wales, and when it was dropped in favour of playing tight rugby in our half yesterday it was evident that kicking away possession whenever we're in our half does not work anymore. We're playing against an international standard that will punish you for turning ball over.
I was pleasantly surprised to see we didn't kick as much as we usually had. It doesn't suit Sexton's strengths, and I think that's finally being picked up on. Even after Tainton complained about not kicking enough last week.
Also, I'm still not 100% on our centres. Italy have a habit of making centres look good. Rougerie schooled them in their opening game. Barrit and Farrell were made look like seasoned pros there two weeks ago. And Darce, Earls, Bowe and Sexton had a walk in the park there yesterday. A lot of people talk about 10 being Italy's problem, where I actually think it's their entire midfield that needs a re-haul.
As mentioned by someone earlier, it's hard to work out if Ireland were good or Italy just bad? Gonna re-watch the match today, but I think there was a fair balance between the two points. Ireland looked much more gelled and definately had a more structured game plan that fitted Sexton's abilities. No kicking from hand to relieve pressure, instead we played much flatter and broke the gain line on numerous occasions.
And what did we learn in terms of selection? For me Murray just confirmed what we already knew - He's got bags of potential, but isn't an international standard SH yet. Reddan should be 1st choice. Ryan should be starting every game (although having an 'impact sub' like him is handy). POM for SOB? Tough choice. POM was electric when he came on, but SOBs work-rate is undeniable. I'll wait for the official stats, but I'd image he was one of our top tacklers.
Posted 12:09 26th February 2012
praetorian says...
macte, before saying that Italy has "worsened", wait for the next two matches. Ireland is our kryptonite.
Posted 11:17 26th February 2012
ciaran1792 says...
Earls had a great game il give him that as a Leinster fan, Kearney is playing great is well the pack had a great game against one of toughest packs in the world minus Castrogovani. They stepped it up second half by introducing Redden, but the first half wasn't that good to slow out of the blocks, I will give credit to Kidney for bringing on his replacements at the right time and experimenting with Bowe at 13 and Sexton at 12 so if anything happens they can just slot into them positions they finished strong but France will take them apart if they start that slow again.
Posted 11:17 26th February 2012
caramba13 says...
It will be interesting to see if Sexton has learnt from The Eng v Wales game and how effective the short chip over the head of opposing, overweight, centres can be. He should be practicing this all week for use against the French centres. And D'Arcy, who had a good game Saturday, scored a great try against the ABs in 2010 using this type of kick.
Ferris is now the best back row forward we have: he was immense for the whole 80 minutes ... unlike SOB - what's the man up too? He looked shagged after 60 mins. Give O'Mahony a run from the start.
Posted 11:11 26th February 2012
D4tress says...
@liam2me - are you kidding me? Earls was terrible! Falling over the line when your team mates have done all the work is NOT a good performance. Earls squandered about 4 opportunities and was taken off with good reason. We have no room for such a limited player in the national set up. What a joke.
Come back soon, BOD.
Posted 09:46 26th February 2012
liam2me says...
Good to see Earls silencing some of those Leinster critics.
Posted 23:52 25th February 2012
swiwi says...
Joubert was fine as ref. Agree kidney needs to chose ferris or o'brien at 6, cos neither is an international class 7. Could ferris play lock/no 8? Reddan to start at half
Posted 22:04 25th February 2012
Hermes says...
I thought O Mahony and Ryan had as much to do with speeding up our ball as Reddan. O Mahony was like a man possessed. Well done on a much deserved first cap.
Posted 21:35 25th February 2012
Hermes says...
If sexton can kick well we can put pressure on higher up the pitch rather than playing football inside our own half. Kidney has identified this as a problem both today and against Wales
Posted 21:27 25th February 2012
DaveJ says...
Redden changed the pace of the game completely when he came on, put Ireland and Sexton up a few gears. SOB just is not an effective 7, I say it time and time again but Healsip would make a better 7, stick him in and out SOB in 8
Posted 21:15 25th February 2012
damo says...
Well done irl, i am irish and have to say the ref was a jole and was 100% pro Ireland as in the incident Ocon joubed tge side of a ruck 2 yards from the irish line and stole the ball is he blind?
Posted 21:01 25th February 2012
jtimkins says...
I thought Reddan, O'Mahony and Ryan made a good impact when they came on.
Posted 20:51 25th February 2012
blametheref says...
Sexton was very good today even though he played most of the game with a very indecisive Murray who seemed ponderous, slow. Donnacha Ryan made a huge difference when he came on as did Reddan thus giving a much sharper service to Sexton who thrived off the quicker and straighter pass. Ryan has to start against France. I don't know why Mc Fadden was brought on but I'm beginning to think he's surplus to requirements as he just hasn't anything to offer this team but normality. It would be much better to have Downey on the bench because he can add a different dimension to proceedings, where Mc Fadden can't...I cringe when I see Sexton being shunted to the centre so ROG can come on, it shows that Kidney still hasn't endorsed Sexton as his number 1 out half and today was the day to show his faith in his out half and let him finish at 10, this is bad for Sexton and the team and shows that Kidney's Ireland, by doing this, are lacking the killer instinct passed down by the coach by juggling the backline like he did. This is worrying as points difference could be very important in this 6 Nations and Earls and the backline should have been kept intact so Ireland could score even more tries and points. A problem area is Sean O' Brien who it seems cannot play 7 effectively, what to do with such a great player and Ferris is a mystrey as it's still an unknown whether Peter O' Mahony is the answer, good player that he is...Still think Ireland could be better and have more cohesion as a team, as under Kidney they play like a team that are fearful of losing and fearful of each other in some weird way, a better coach would get much more out of these talented player in my opinion, one that has no ties to Ireland would be better in my opinion, hopefully Joe Schmidt will be offered the job before the All Blacks come calling...We have a chance against France, if we can play without THE FEAR!
Posted 20:49 25th February 2012