Second half underway.
Italy made four line-breaks to one from Ireland in the first half, beat more defenders (17-8), had more offloads (2-0), made fewer handling errors (10-11) and conceded fewer turnovers (5-8), and somehow they’re behind, 12-10. Discipline is an issue for the home side, six penalties, a free-kick and a yellow card.
FIRST HALF SYNOPSIS
Well, the pluses first. Ireland are leading at half-time having been outplayed for much of the half. Ireland have scored two tries of the four that they need for a bonus point. I say bonus point but they’d do well to win the match first and foremost. They will also have a man advantage for nine minutes in the second half after replacement Michele Lamaro received a yellow card for a silly moment, slapping the ball from Gibson-Park’s grip. The visitors have led a charmed life at times with Italy playing the better rugby and in Menoncello have arguably the game’s most influential performer. The home side have been bright and sharp in their attack and found space in and around the fringes of rucks and through the Irish midfield. Their try was a beauty, Menoncello breaking through two tackles and Garbisi’s grubber kick was a beauty, perfectly weighted and angled for Monty Ioane to win the race.
Half-time: Italy 10 Ireland 12
39 mins: TRY SHEEHAN. The Irish hooker takes the ball from Tadhg Beirne and with some additional help from a few backs, Ireland power over the line. Crowley smothers his conversion attempt but Ireland go in at half time leading.
Italy 10 Ireland 12
36 mins: There’s an lovely rhythm to the way that Italy are playing finding holes in the Irish defence, Page-Relo, at scrumhalf, a livewire while Menoncello has caused havoc in the Irish midfield. An important penalty turnover by Conan. Lamaro could be in trouble. Taps the ball out of Gibson-Park’s hands at a ruck. TMO Andrew Jackson puts the footage on the big screen and Lamaro receives a yellow card. He’s furious. Ireland kick the penalty to the corner.
Italy 10 Ireland 7
33 mins: PENALTY ALLAN. The fullback kicks the long range penalty. Lovely strike. The camera had cut to Ireland head coach Simon Easterby who has his head in his hands when he side conceded the initial penalty. And another penalty against Ireland. Crossing this time, after a Ringrose break had given them field position.
Italy 10 Ireland 7
29 mins: Ioane thunders into Hansen after he catches a high ball, the Irish wing does well but another fumble by an Irish players gives Italy a scrum on the halfway line. Italy elect to grubber the ball through Brex but it rolls over the Irish line: goal-line drop out. The home side are soon rolling through the phases again. Lowe does brilliantly to intercept a pass, but James Ryan knocks on. It’s all so sloppy and edgy from Ireland. Two more changes for Italy. Michele Lamaro for Negri and Ross Vintcent for Lorenzo Cannone.
Italy 7 Ireland 7
22 mins: TRY HUGO KEENAN: There is a strike play. Gibson-Park, Crowley to Keenan coming on a short line and breaking Brex’s tackle – that’s an unlucky 13 missed for the Italian captain in the tournament – to score. Jack Crowley adds the conversion.
Italy 7 Ireland 7
18 mins: Menoncello again slices open Ireland this time the midfield with a brilliant, angled run off first phase scrum possession. He makes 40-metres before van der Flier makes gets back. The Italian offloads to his midfield partner Juan Ignacio Brex but Ireland escape when an Italian knocked on. Ireland’s defence, or lack there of, against Menoncello is a real and pressing issue. Niccolo Cannone is on for Dino Lamb, injured in a ruck clear-out.
Italy 7 Ireland 0
19 mins: FINLAY BEALHAM TRY DISALLOWED: Ireland win a penalty, kick it to the corner, the maul goes forward and eventually Finlay Bealham, having been stopped initially. Reaches to dot down. The question is the time taken after being stopped to when he reaches over. It’s a double movement. Ireland were on penalty advantage. Sheehan taps.
Italy 7 Ireland 0
21 mins: Ireland again so narrow in the one-out runners. In some respect they are lucky that Italy, who defended their goal-line with gusto, knock-on and Ireland will have a scrum five metres out. Surely there is a strike play coming.
Italy 7 Ireland 0
15 mins: Menoncello was the player who beat the two Irish players in the build-up to the try. Ireland have been careless in possession for the most part, handling mistakes and are losing collisions because of the absence of footwork and to be honest subterfuge in what they are doing. Italy are full value for the lead. They have been enterprising in their use of possession.
Italy 7 Ireland 0
11 mins: TRY MONTY IOANE: Gibson-Park watches an inside pass to Dan Sheehan intercepted and Robbie Henshaw has to stetch his hamstrings to win a footrace against Ange Capuozzo from Danilo Fisichetti’s kick through. It’s a short respite, Hansen and Ringrose miss tackles as Italy push the ball to width. Garbisi’s angled grubber enables Ioane to outpace Keenan and dot down. A superb try matched by Tommaso Allan’s touchline conversion.
Italy 7 Ireland 0
5 mins: Lowe is bounces a couple of Italian defenders before being bundled into touch. Paolo Garbisi launches another garryowen, again taken by Keenan. First scrum of the game. Italy get a free-kick. Nice counter-attack from Ireland and grubber from Garry Ringrose but the visitors are penalised, think it was Josh van der Flier, at a ruck. Few errors thrown in, which culminates in Italy conceding a penalty.
Italy 0 Ireland 0
3 mins: Bright opening from Italy, nice variation but Ireland are aggressive in defence and force Italian scrumhalf Martin Page-Relo to kick. Mack Hansen catches the first up and under and then chases one launched by Jamison Gibson-Park. Hugo Keenan eventually brings an end to 160 seconds of non-stop action by taking a mark. The Fields of Athenry get an airing. There’s a party feel to the afternoon. Everyone’s up for a good time.
Italy 0 Ireland 0
Anthems done and they were great. Time to go at Olimpico.
It is like a home game for Ireland. Huge numbers in green in the stand.
Here are the teams. Shots of the dressing room show Ireland’s Caelan Doris and in the Italian one Tomasso Menoncello as the last people to speak before the teams entered the pitch.
Awaiting the teams and the anthems. Not long now. Forza Irlanda as they’d say in these parts.
[ Johnny Watterson spoke to James Ryan Opens in new window ]
15 minutes to kickoff.
A regret as I watch Cian Healy throw a pass is that he never landed a drop goal in a match. I must have watched him land a hundred in warm-ups. Sweet striking prop. Skills.
Ireland looked to have brought the entire squad, all of whom are out on the pitch. The Ireland team is being announced to the crowd. The roars are whetting the appetite nicely.
Italian captain Juan Ignacio Brex: “We worked a lot in the week on our defence because the last two rounds were not nice and not easy for us because we conceded a lot of tries. We need to be ready because Ireland play multi-phase rugby.
“I think they will try to keep the ball to try to attack us because they watched the last two games (against France and England). They are here to take five points so our job is to deny it.
“It’s never a good time to play Ireland. You need to be ready that they are going to be in the best shape possible.
“You need to be ready because they are an incredible team, maybe top three in the world. It’s not a good time or a bad time (to play them).
“Probably they will come to do five points (this weekend), that’s the reality. We know that because we are the first game of ‘Super Saturday’.”
Ireland and Italy well into the warm-up at this stage. Stadium filling up, Italian technopop blaring and DJ loving life.
Worth a re-run
Matt Williams on the ‘have and have nots.’
[ Ireland can't produce big boysOpens in new window ]
Gerry Thornley’s match preview
[ Ireland to bounce back in Rome Opens in new window ]
Techno version of Sophie Ellis-Bextor ‘Murder on the Dance Floor.’
[ France may have been bigger but they were betterOpens in new window ]
A take on Ireland’s defeat last week.
Prior to the kickoff there will be a moment’s (30-seconds) silence in memory of the former vice president of the Italian Olympic committee Mr Riccardo Agabio who passed away yesterday.
Ireland captain Caelan Doris: “I don’t think you can think about that (getting a bonus point) too quickly given how Italy have gone. They got a win over here against Wales, they showed quality, they showed quality in the first half against England last week too.
“So we can’t take any result for granted but, of course, given the context and the bigger picture, we’ll be chasing a bonus point but the result is the most important thing.
“(It’s) largely it’s about us. We respect Italy massively, and we respect their attack massively. It’s been very strong for the last number of years, what they can do with ball in hand.
“We’ve seen glimpses of that this year, throughout this year and the last number of years.
“There’s that element but we want our best performance yet and (the) frustration off the back of last week, and the only way we can right that wrong is to put in a good strong performance.”
Some good Italian tunes. Easy listening.
THE TEAMS
ITALY: Tommaso Allan (Perpignan); Ange Capuozzo (Toulouse), Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton Rugby) (capt), Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton Rugby), Monty Ioane (Lyon); Paolo Garbisi (Toulon), Martin Page-Relo (Lyon); Danilo Fischetti (Zebre Parma), Gianmarco Lucchesi (Toulon), Simone Ferrari (Benetton Rugby), Dino Lamb (Harlequins), Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby), Sebastian Negri (Benetton Rugby), Manuel Zuliani (Benetton Rugby), Lorenzo Cannone (Benetton Rugby).
Replacements: Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Francais), Mirco Spagnolo (Benetton Rugby), Giosuè Zilocchi (Benetton Rugby), Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby), Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby), Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs), Stephen Varney (Vannes), Leonardo Marin (Benetton Rugby).
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (UCD RFC/Leinster); Mack Hansen (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht), Garry Ringrose (UCD RFC/Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers RFC/Leinster), James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution FC/Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (UCD RFC/Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne FC/Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht), James Ryan (UCD RFC/Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne FC/Munster), Jack Conan (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Josh van der Flier (UCD RFC/Leinster), Caelan Doris (St. Mary’s College RFC/Leinster) (capt).
Replacements: Gus McCarthy (UCD RFC/Leinster), Jack Boyle (UCD RFC/Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf FC/Leinster), Joe McCarthy (Dublin University FC/Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution FC/Munster), Conor Murray (Garryowen FC/Munster), Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne FC/Leinster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians RFC/Connacht).
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Morné Ferreira (South Afrca)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)
FPRO: Tual Trainini (France)
Poignant afternoon for the two Munster lads and for those who cheer them on in a green jersey.
The Italian team have just emerged onto the pitch, headphones still on for a walkaround.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Jack Crowley smile as broadly in Rome this afternoon.
Here’s a run down of the permutations
Ireland’s chances of lifting the trophy
Though slightly behind, Ireland still have a chance to claim the title if results go their way.
- Outright Victory:
Ireland will win the Championship if they beat Italy with a BP and both France and England fail to win their matches.
- Win Without a BP:
If Ireland win without a BP and both France and England lose, Ireland can take the title with 18 points.
- Draw or Close Loss:
If Ireland draw with a BP or lose with two BPs, they can still win the Championship if both France and England lose and they hold a superior points difference.
- Points Difference:
Like France and England, Ireland’s title hopes may come down to points difference if teams are level on match points at the end of the tournament.
France’s path to the title
France currently lead the table and have several routes to claiming the championship, depending on their result against Scotland and how England and Ireland perform in their respective matches.
- Outright Victory:
France will win the Championship if they defeat Scotland with a bonus point (BP), taking them to 21 points.
- Win Without a BP:
France can still secure the title with a victory (no BP) if England either wins without a BP, draws (with or without a BP), or loses (with or without a BP), keeping France on 20 points.
- Draw Scenarios:
A draw with a BP against Scotland will still secure the title if England and Ireland do not surpass them in points.
- Losing and Bonus Points:
If France lose but secure two BPs, they can still win if England and Ireland both lose without bonus points.
- Points Difference:
If France finish level on points with England or Ireland, their title chances depend on superior points difference, making every score-line crucial.
England’s route to glory
England’s path to the title hinges on their performance against Wales and the outcome of France’s match.
- Outright Victory:
England will win the Championship if they beat Wales with a BP and France either draw or lose to Scotland. This would put them on 20 points.
- Win Without a BP:
If England win without a BP and France fail to win, England can claim the title with 19 points.
- Draw or Close Loss:
England can still win the Championship if they draw with a BP or lose with two BPs, provided France and Ireland both lose their matches.
- Points Difference:
If England and France finish level on points, England must surpass France on points difference to win.
Wherever you are watching the match please stay with us. We will bring you all the build-up, have a look at this and that before the game, follow the action during the game and we’ll bring you Gerry Thornley’s match report while Johnny Watterson is once again on Player Ratings duty. Controversially before a ball is kicked he’s thrown the red pen in the bin. He maintains he won’t need it.
The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted that the person ahead of me is RTE radio commentator Michael Corcoran; he is not one of the lads playing tennis.
Ireland visit Rome’s Stadio Olimpico this afternoon as they look to bounce back to a chastening defeat to France last weekend which effectively ended their title hopes.
Simon Easterby has made six changes for the game against Italy with Jack Crowley in for Sam Prendergast at out-half the headline switch.
We’ll have all the updates throughout the afternoon on a day where France look most likely to be crowned winners of the 2025 Six Nations.
Key match info
- Kick-off time: 2:15pm
- TV channel: RTÉ Two
- Can Ireland still win the Six Nations? Here’s what needs to happen
Hello and welcome to the Irish Times Rugby blog on the final weekend of the Six Nations Championship. John O’Sullivan here, in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where Italy host an Ireland team looking for a miracle not like the one in Lanciano in the eighth century but just a common or garden rugby one.
France’s victory in Dublin last weekend puts them in the box seat as they host Scotland in the Stade de France tonight (8.0) Irish time, leading the table on 16 points, England are next on 15 points as they travel to face Wales in the Principality later this afternoon (4.45) while Ireland (14) and Italy get the Six Nations Super Saturday up and rolling at 2.15, Irish time).
It’s a beautiful sunny, warm (21 degrees), Roman afternoon, perfect for the rugby. There is a huge Irish supporter base in the Italian capital. There isn’t a monument that doesn’t have a green jersey poking around it. The guesstimate is that there are 25,000-30,000 Irish supporters here for the weekend.
I travelled via Frankfurt yesterday and half the plane consisted of Irish supporters. Ryle Nugent went via Barcelona, and it was the same drill. There are two bits of information that you didn’t think you needed to enjoy the match today.
