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Obstructionist Italians fail to stop Ireland in 2nd half

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Because while it seems that the Italians are destined to finish at the bottom of the pile this season, they adopt an intensely abrasive approach which makes constructive rugby incredibly difficult. France have an infinitely sharper cutting edge, but at least they allow you to play. Italy?s primary ambition is to stop their opponents from playing.
So when Ireland trailed by 9-7 coming up to the interval, you feared that all the expectation that had been generated by the French victory might come to nothing. At that stage, Ronan O?Gara was off the pitch having been sin-binned, and the replacement out-half, Paddy Wallace, was having treatment for an eye injury. Suddenly, the Irish had no playmaker, and no place kicker, and things were looking bleak.
But Luke Fitzgerald?s superb try, thanks to a Stephen Ferris assist following some fine build-up play, soothed a few nerves and eventually, Ireland added three more tries in the second half through David Wallace, Fitzgerald again and Brian O?Driscoll to seal what in the end was an emphatic win.
?For the first 20 minutes, we were probably pushing it a little bit. Italy do what they do, they put you under enormous pressure,? said Kidney. ?We showed a lot of patience to get that try before half time. That was a huge, huge lift for us. We?ve no right rolling up in these matches just expecting to win. Every game is a huge challenge.?
O?Driscoll agreed that in the face of the ultra-physical Italians ? their full-back Andrea Masi was yellow-carded in the opening seconds for a dangerous tackle on Rob Kearney ? Ireland?s start wasn?t too impressive. ?The longer the game went on, the better I thought we got. Any time you come to Rome and score 38 points, you ask any team in the Six Nations, they?ll take that. We?re pleased, but I don?t think we?ll be patting eachother on the backs.?
Once again, the emerging Ferris had a big game as did Kearney, while Jamie Heaslip maintained his good form at number eight. Fitzgerald was also outstanding as he scored his first international tries.
Tommy Bowe had run strongly for Ireland?s opening try which came from an interception, and the final effort was a similar interception by O?Driscoll, so it wasn?t as if the winners were able to create too many chances of their own.
Gordon D?Arcy is likely to come back into midfield for the next game against England, who lost 23-15 to Wales, at Croke Park on Saturday week, while scrum half Tomas O?Leary is now coming under pressure from Peter Stringer.
?I thought England improved 300 per cent from the previous week. They?ve really come on,? admitted Kidney. ?You look forward to Ireland-England games in a kind of masochistic way. You know how good they are.
The size of the challenge has increased enormously, and they?ll be eyeing us as a target.?

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