Rome effectively ground to a halt yesterday, as tens of thousands converged on the Vatican for the new Pope’s first mass. The Rome marathon also took place, which meant most roads were closed off for the majority of the day. At the end of such a truly momentous week in which even another hung parliament hardly registered, an historic first victory for their national rugby team over their Irish counterparts was not exactly the main item of St Patrick’s weekend.
Nevertheless, for the vast majority of the 74,000 in attendance for Saturday's sun-drenched, carnival-like day at the Stadio Olimpico, this was a rousing affirmation of their very real advances and it was hard to begrudge their celebratory lap of honour to the popular Italian sing-a-long Il Cielo E' Sempre Più Blu (The Sky is More Blue) by Rino Gaetano.
Tellingly, as their inspirational captain Sergio Parisse noted afterwards, it had felt like they were “dominant” throughout, and that this had been a more satisfactory achievement than their four-point haul of 2007, courtesy of wins over Wales and Scotland. As they also came within a score of England – now the only team they have yet to scalp – at Twickenham, this is undoubtedly the case.
This season they have played with far more ambition, with a ball-in-hand, recycling, off-loading and counter-attacking game, and they were utterly worthy of their first Six Nations win over an injury-ravaged Ireland. This campaign was also a significant shot across the bows of both Ireland and France given they are their main group opponents in the next World Cup.
In hindsight, Ireland’s campaign began to unravel even in the midst of their opening win with the stress caused by that final half-hour onslaught from the Welsh. An unjust yellow card to Rory Best contributed to those stress levels and it was certainly Ireland’s misfortune to not only suffer Romain Poite that day but, worse still, Wayne Barnes (who presided over yet another fine mess here) on two occasions subsequently.
A sodden arm wrestle with England seven days later was not what the doctor ordered, and a week on from his astonishing backheeled flick Simon Zebo's broken metatarsal did for him, before Jonny Sexton over extended his hamstring against England.
Carnage struck
His anticipated return had revived hope for this game and on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, the Irish backline had run with Sexton at outhalf alongside Luke Marshall, Brian O'Driscoll and Keith Earls at 12, 13 and 11. By kick-off, Jackson had replaced Sexton, with Ian Madigan drafted onto the bench, whereupon all manner of carnage struck Ireland in an eye-watering 13-minute period from the 25th minute as first Earls, then Marshall and finally the former's replacement Luke Fitzgerald all went down.
In the midst of all that O’Driscoll even picked up the second yellow card of his career for stamping on Simone Favaro, deservedly so too. Already trailing 9-3, this meant that for two minutes of sustained pressure, the only backs Paddy Jackson had outside him were Madigan, Craig Gilroy, Rob Kearney and Peter O’Mahony, who had been pressed into service on the left wing. How Ireland survived that was in no small measure due to their collective spirit and defensive organisation.
They even responded with a second penalty on half-time by Paddy Jackson, and from 16-6 down a further trio of three-pointers by the Ulster outhalf – the third from their one sustained spell of penetrative running and recycling constituted the unchartered territory of the first points of the championship in the final quarter – exacted full punishment for Sergio Parisse’s yellow card to again fleetingly work their way back into the match.
However, that was as good as it got as Ireland again repeatedly fell foul of Barnes, who for the second time penalised them 13 times (Ireland's rap sheet is 39 penalties and five yellow cards in the three games refereed by Poite and Barnes, with 20 and no penalties in the other two). Their discipline fell away, it has to be said, and they were even briefly reduced to 13 when Conor Murray joined Donnacha Ryan in the bin for off-the-ball offences.
Legitimate steals
The lineout was again an Achilles heel, coughing up three attacking throws in the first half and four out of nine in total. A couple were legitimate steals though it was surprising that the ever-willing Ryan called one on himself just after Devin Toner joined the fray. But a couple were again bad throws by Best.
The scrum too was in trouble, though one seven-man effort featuring a tight five comprised entirely of replacements actually held up, but the breakdown work was sluggish and lacked intensity, ensuring a preponderance of slow ball for Conor Murray. This was compounded by Jackson often dropping too deep, even if managing the game is such circumstances was a huge ask on his third Test. Ironically, his place-kicking is the aspect of his game which has shone through in the last two games, but there has been nothing of the same threat on the gain line since Murrayfield.
When Paul Marshall made a late entrance, he became Ireland’s 10th debutant in seven Tests this season, and the 33rd player to be used in this Six Nations alone. Ireland don’t have 33 players of true Test quality. Most probably never have done, nor never will do.
Along with O’Driscoll, again one couldn’t fault the effort of them all and Seán O’Brien in particular, while Madigan’s willingness to attack the gainline was one of the few bright sparks. But overall this was a ragged, disjointed, ill-disciplined and wasteful kicking game.
ITALY: A Masi (Wasps); G Venditti (Zebre), G Canale (St Rochelais), G Garcia (Zebre), L McLean (Treviso); L Orquera (Zebre), E Gori (Treviso); A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro), L Ghiraldini (Treviso), L Cittadini (Treviso), Q Geldenhuys (Zebre), J Furno (Narbonne), A Zanni (Treviso), S Favaro (Treviso), S Parisse (St Francais) (capt). Replacements: F Minto (Treviso) for Furno, P Derbyshire (Treviso) for Favaro (both 58 mins), M Rizzo (Treviso) for Lo Cicero (64 mins), A Pavanello (Treviso) for Geldenhuys (65 mins), T Benvenuti (Treviso) for Masi (66 mins), D Giazzon (Zebre) for Ghiraldini, A de Marchi (Treviso) for Cittadini, T Botes (Treviso) for Gori (all 75 mins).
Sin-binned: Parisse (52-62 mins).
IRELAND: R Kearney (Leinster); C Gilroy (Ulster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), L Marshall (Ulster), K Earls (Munster); P Jackson (Ulster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross Leinster), Mike McCarthy (Connacht), D Ryan (Munster), P O'Mahony (Munster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster) (capt). Replacements: L Fitzgerald (Leinster) for Earls (25 mins), I Madigan (Leinster) for L Marshall (28 mins), I Henderson (Ulster) for Fitzgerald (37 mins), D Toner (Leinster) for McCarthy (64 mins), S Archer (Munster) for Ross (67 mins), S Cronin (Leinster) for Best, D Kilcoyne (Munster) for Healy (both 70 mins), P Marshall (Ulster) for Ryan (80 mins).
Sin-binned: O'Driscoll (30-40 mins), Ryan (69-79 mins), Murray (80 mins).
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England
