Ireland completely dominated this game from probably the 5th minute on. That isn’t unusual when we play Italy in the Aviva Stadium, to be honest, and probably not unusual when we play them anywhere else.
On first viewing, I thought Italy played a much too expansive game but I was wrong – they played in the low counter-transition range and, as I discussed in the Green Eye before the game, they had a much better return at disrupting Ireland’s breakdown than France did but none of it mattered. Why? Because that return at the breakdown was unplanned. It happened as a matter of course and wasn’t a direct tactic used by Italy, to the point I think they’ll likely be kicking themselves on the review.
Italy didn’t really kick to attack Ireland’s offensive transition at the breakdown. They went after jackals when the window was obvious but, for me, they left opportunities out there to keep bodies in the defensive line.
On the next phase, Zuliani managed to charge down Crowley with Izekor – something that would seem a vindication of staying on feet – but that’s a relatively rare event in a game. They won a breakdown turnover on the next phase and should have scored from that break which shows what you can force out of Ireland with that kind of approach.
What happened on that break is a good example of Italy’s lack of accuracy. If Italy were accurate and clinical there was an opportunity to put a janky-looking early game from Ireland under pressure. This means being ruthless off the tee, making most of your breaks count and being bold and accurate at the lineout when you get the chance. Italy were none of these when it mattered. They squandered a good 15-minute spell and, when Ireland scored an outstanding try off a scrum platform, they were cooked. Done and dusted. Game over.
That’s the thing with this Irish side – beating them is like trying to assemble a really complex flatpack kitchen island from Ikea when the instructions are in Mandarin. If you don’t follow the right steps in the right order your Allen Key and a Phillips head won’t work – you’d better have an electric screwdriver, a hammer and some nails if you want to beat them.
Italy didn’t get that Ireland’s ruck support might not be as mobile on every ruck as they would be normally so when they kicked at the volume they did – one kick for every 4.3 passes – and filled the field rather than hit the ruck, they allowed themselves to be slowly picked apart by Casey and Crowley.
You can see the difference in pace they had on this maul break. Ireland gets one forward beyond the ruck in the same time it takes for Italy to get three forwards at the ruck.
McCloskey probably needs to muscle up here – the Irish #12 is like another flanker at the offensive ruck – but should Sheehan be the only Irish forward anywhere near this ruck by the time Italy get three of their heavier guys across to counter-ruck?
Josh Van Der Flier would have been there by the time Fischetti was – that’s what a small forward does – and we’d have likely secured this ruck as a result. Italy turned it over but knocked on the ball in doing so but it was pure happenstance. They didn’t understand that the same principles would hold up on phase play with the right approach.
Ireland won a penalty on the next scrum – Ceccarelli asked Porter to squat him again and got broken up to the point that he’d be subbed at halftime – Crowley kicked the ball onto the 5m line and you know what happens from there.
Try. Game over over.
In the second half, Italy came out with the game plan that they probably should have adopted from the first whistle with constant jackal attempts on consecutive carries.
On the wider question of whether this pack build would work against an elite opponent – I’m not sure it would, especially with McCloskey a little miscast in the #12 role this team uses, which is essentially an auxiliary small forward. For the moment at least, Josh Van Der Flier’s continued first-class involvement is almost a guarantee just based on some of the misses the pack had here. A better, more coherent team would see that relative narrowness in Ireland’s structure and use it to punish the high Pass Per Carry game we like to play.
I don’t think Josh Van Der Flier gets baited into the wrong clean action in this position, for example. That’s all hypothetical, of course, but I think the big takeaway from this game is that Beirne and Van Der Flier, at the very least, are and should remain core starters.
At the moment the biggest threat to this Irish side is an off-ball side that doesn’t lose patience or get bored with kicking and defending relentlessly in contact but, in particular, at the defensive breakdown.
Italy are not that so they were well beaten by a relatively uncohesive Ireland.
But that shouldn’t take away from a really encouraging performance from Crowley and Casey – looking every bit the potential starting pair in two or three seasons – as well as some of the best, most attractive and most effective attacking phase structures anywhere in the test game right now.
Right now it’s hard to look past Ireland winning back-to-back Slams but the spectre of an English side with a gameplan seemingly built to spoil counter-transition rugby is a cloud on the horizon.
We’ll wait and see how that game goes but for now, Wales awaits and Gatland will not make the mistakes that Queseda did here. Ireland are the best side in this tournament but that means we’re the team to beat and everyone’s cup final, in a way. How we react to that pressure will go a long way to showing just how ready we are to step into the post-Sexton Era with the swagger we’ve shown so far.
| Rating | |
|---|---|
| Andrew Porter | ★★★★ |
| Dan Sheehan | ★★★★ |
| Finlay Bealham | ★★★ |
| Joe McCarthy | ★★ |
| James Ryan | ★★ |
| Ryan Baird | ★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★★★ |
| Jack Conan | ★★★★★ |
| Craig Casey | ★★★★ |
| Jack Crowley | ★★★★★ |
| James Lowe | ★★★★ |
| Stuart McCloskey | ★★★ |
| Robbie Henshaw | ★★★ |
| Calvin Nash | ★★★★ |
| Hugo Keenan | ★★★★★ |
| Ronan Kelleher | ★★★ |
| Jeremy Loughman | ★★★ |
| Tom O'Toole | ★★★ |
| Iain Henderson | ★★★ |
| Josh Van Der Flier | ★★★ |
| Jamison Gibson Park | ★★★ |
| Harry Byrne | ★★★ |
| Jordan Larmour | ★★★ |
