The FIR’s prematch estimate that 5,000-plus Irish fans had bought tickets for this game was correct in one respect; the plus part. While there may not quite have been the 25,000 away supporters which James Ryan had been led to believe, the Green Army invasion must have accounted for around a third of the 51,000 attendance at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
It wasn’t far off Celtic Tiger proportions in the early noughties and bumping into fans from Dubai, San Francisco and London, as well as Ireland, clearly they had purchased tickets from far afield. Aside from the appeal of Bella Roma after a four-year gap since Irish supporters last attended a match in the Eternal City, part of the attraction was the price of those tickets – circa €41 as opposed to circa €135 for the Aviva Stadium – plus their availability.
As is usually the case, they brought more colour, roaring and singing too, while the Italians were equally engaged – with renditions of ‘Inno di Mameli’ and The Fields of Athenry adding to the giddy atmosphere.
Both sets of supporters indulged in an early Mexican Wave despite another of those wildly loose opening quarters which have been a trademark of the modern game, and especially ones involving Ireland.
That pace could, again, never be quite maintained, and after a bountiful, six-try, point-per-minute first half, Ireland won the second period 10-3 – albeit that was not remotely reflective of the attacking rugby and amount of chances again created at both ends of the pitch.
Yet as this eventful and entertaining game unfolded, not for the first time the thought occurred that the home supporters at the Aviva Stadium crowd could do with a chant. Rather than musical ditties to mark the quieter spells, at several junctures the stadium announcer would cajole the Azzurri fans to chant: “Forza Italia”. And, helped by their exciting and fearless side being seriously competitive throughout, they enthusiastically did so.
No one present was calling for Italy’s expulsion, a narrative which has largely subsided now. To those people, Kieran Crowley said: “They can say what they like, it doesn’t concern me. Other people can make those decisions.
“Look, we have five games in the Six Nations. We’re in it, so we’ve now got another two. We’ll have a couple of wines tonight and a debrief, and review the game. Then the next game is Wales and we’ll start on that in the middle of the week.
“People will have those calls and everyone has got to have an opinion or a say, but we’re the ones that are in it at the moment and we’re doing our best to be a credible team that’s in there.”
For Crowley, the most encouraging aspect of this Azzurri team’s growth under his watch has been their improved confidence.
“They believe in themselves. I think they have a process and I think they’re really well driven by the leaders in the team. They do their work during the week. I’m not saying they didn’t beforehand but I think when you have a process that they are comfortable with and they have the courage. That’s the big thing.
“They have the courage to try things. We had a lineout on the Irish line with about six or seven minutes to go and they stole it because we had the courage to throw to the back. Ireland have an outstanding maul defence at the front and the middle but we had the courage to go to the back. Okay, Ireland nicked it, but at least we had the courage to do it, and I’ll back them 100 per cent for going there.
“Yeah, we’re disappointed with that but we’ve got courage now, and I think we’ve got to keep backing ourselves. We’ve still got to be sensible about it.
“One other thing too. I think they’re starting to prove that to themselves, because there’s a lot of negativity around this group because of what the media or people were saying. But I think they’re starting to think they can play rugby now, which is good.”
Italy have seriously stressed the world’s top two sides and it says everything about their progress that they’ve come away from both games disappointed not to have won.
“We don’t want to become a team that gets pats on the backs because we played well or showed good style, we want to get over the line,” said Crowley.
“We’re absolutely gutted about the result today ... Yes they’re the number one side in the world but we thought that we could really give them a crack. And we gave them a crack. We just weren’t accurate enough in certain areas.
“We were right in that game. Rugby today is all about inches, it’s all about the little things. Sometimes they’ll fall for you, sometimes they don’t.”
