Springtime for Ireland A in Italy. Beginning the defence of the A championship won last season, the Irish second stringers augmented their autumnal win over South Africa with a controlled, clinical and fairly complete 10-try destruction of the hapless Italians. On a crisp, cold but sunny afternoon in front of about 2,000 in Viterbo, the Irish tucked the ball under their arms and largely kept it there when playing into a stiff, biting wind to set a winning 22-9 interval platform. They then cut loose in the final quarter and five tries were totted on.
Importantly, the Italians did take a bit of subduing in the first quarter but when given the artillery, the backs cut loose impressively.
No one dipped his bread more hungrily than Anthony Horgan, who led the procession to the try-line with a high class hat-trick.
Up front, there were many star acts yet it would be hard not to make Johnny O'Connor the man of the match.
The team's one debutant seemed to be everywhere, making a host of the early runs and putting in plenty of tackles. For a 20-year-old he really is something special. Declan Kidney reckoned that "they all did well in the first 20 minutes. That's really when we won it."
The pack rumbled over from a lineout and a scrum, Longwell - wrongly denied the first time - eventually being rewarded at the second attempt. John Kelly made the initial inroads before Shane Byrne crashed over in the corner.
The Italians stayed in touch with penalties but even Tony McWhirter's sin binning upped the Irish ante as Jeremy Staunton landed a penalty and then cut through before offloading to Kelly for Horgan to run clear from 40 metres out.
Staunton scored with nonchalant ease inside 70 seconds of the restart with an outside break off scrum ball inside the 22. The pick of the 10 was possibly the next off quick lineout ball from Gary Longwell. A well-worked miss move off Staunton's long pass to Jonathon Bell saw Geordan Murphy enter the line and feed Horgan; the winger breaking the full back's tackle and then checking his opposite number to score in the corner. When the Italians had the temerity to score a well worked try through Juan-Sebastian Francesio, Ireland reasserted control with a big scrum against the head and a Staunton penalty before cutting loose. They added tries by Horgan and four from replacements, Peter Smyth, Justin Bishop, Paul Burke and Mick O'Driscoll.
Scoring sequence: 17 mins: Longwell try, Staunton con 0-7; 19 mins: Mazzariol pen 3-7; 20 mins: Byrne try 3-12; 26 mins: Mazzariol pen 6-12; 33 mins: Preo pen 9-12; 36 mins: Staunton pen 9-15; 38 mins: Horgan try, Staunton con 9-22 (half-time 9-22); 42 mins: Staunton try 9-27; 50 mins: Horgan try 9-32; 56 mins: Francesio try, Mazzariol con 16-32; 61 mins: Staunton pen 16-35; 63 mins: Horgan try, Staunton con 16-42; 67 mins: Smyth try, Staunton con 16-49; 74 mins: Bishop try, Burke con 16-56; 77 mins: Burke try 16-61; 81 mins: O'Driscoll try, Murphy con 16-68.
ITALY A: M Ravozollo; N Mazzucato, N Zisti, G Preo, J-S Fraancesio; F Mazzariol, J-M Queirolo; S Perugini, A Moretti, V Golfetti, C Bezzi, L Mastradomenico, R Piovan, A de Rossi (capt), A Benatti. Replacements: L Artal for Perugini (19 mins), M Raivaro for Zisti (45 mins).
IRELAND A: D Crotty (Garryowen); G Mur- phy (Leicester), J Bell (Dungannon), J Kelly (Cork Constitution), A Horgan (Cork Constitution); J Staunton (Garryowen), T Tierney (Garryowen); J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon), S Byrne (Blackrock College), S Best (Belfast Harlequins), B Casey (Blackrock College), G Longwell (Ballymena), T Brennan (St Mary's College), T McWhirter (Dungannon), J O'Connor (Galwegians). Replacements: M Horan for Fitzpatrick, P Smyth for Byrne, L Cullen for Casey, M O'Driscoll for Longwell (all 64 mins), J Bishop for Horgan, P Burke for Staunton, K Campbell for Tierney (all 71 mins). Sin-binned: McWhirter (33-43 mins).
Referee: F Maciello (France).
