Italy 17 Ireland 22
Two and a half minutes from time, James Lowe came in off his wing and Manuel Zuliani offloaded one-handed to the talented 23-year-old Italian replacement Leonardo Marin. A star of the future was set to become one of the present with his first touch when he raced up the touchline and stepped inside Hugo Keenan. For a moment it really did look like Italy were going to have a conversion to win the match.
They’d been the brighter, sparkier side in many ways. Their body language had been more positive – and so too their instinctive attacking inventiveness, especially when Ange Capuozzo was in the vicinity of the ball.
Five minutes earlier Lowe had been wrongly adjudged to have placed a foot on the touchline by Morné Ferreira earlier before offloading inside for Keenan to finish, and Luke Pearce had been too trigger happy in whistling before the Irish fullback touched down, thereby preventing recourse to the TMO Andrew Jackson, in which case the try would have stood.
That was largely forgotten in this game’s aftermath but had Ireland lost a title to the last kick in the light of that truly awful officiating the recriminations would have been huge.
Furthermore, whereas Jack Crowley had missed three of his four conversions, Tommaso Allan had landed three kicks from three, including two superb conversions. As the home fans roared them on, and as Marin raced up the touchline, all of this contributed to thoughts of just a second Six Nations win for Italy in 26 meetings against Ireland flashing before our eyes.
In the event, Joe McCarthy saved Ireland’s day by blindsiding Marin with the covering tackle and the Italian pressure was lifted by a Lowe interception.
Ultimately, not even an Italian barber could have given Ireland a closer shave. This was reaffirmed by what Ireland did with an ensuing penalty against Giacomo Nicotera. Winning by five points, they were still shy of England’s points differential but the thought of going down the pitch and enhancing their remote title hopes never entered their heads. Advised by Pearce that he could tap the ball to himself and kick it dead to end the match, Sam Prendergast duly did so and with that the Irish team and management could exhale a collective breath of relief and the retiring centurions Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray et al could enjoy a lap of gratitude to the estimated 30,000-plus Irish supporters in the 72,000-capacity crowd.
As well as McCarthy’s covering tackle, Ireland were also indebted to Italy’s ill discipline, not least when the demoted Italian captain Michele Lamaro instinctively but ill-advisedly tugged Jamison Gibson-Park’s arm at a ruck. To compound his acute embarrassment as he sat on the naughty seat, Dan Sheehan scored the first of his hat-trick from the ensuing penalty to the corner and catch-and-drive.
Italy’s other two yellow cards against two more replacement forwards, Ross Vintcent and, in the last minute, Nicotera were subsequently upgraded to reds and Italy also lost the penalty count by 10-4.
Yet although Ireland scored four tries to two, Italy made six line breaks to three, and their superior footwork – particularly the slippery Capuozzo and Tommaso Menoncello – led to 28 missed tackles by the away side.
Ireland also made 23 handling errors and coughed up 20 turnovers, the tone set by a mistake-strewn opening quarter during which Italy were full value for the lead given them by Menoncello beating Mack Hansen and Garry Ringrose before offloading for Paolo Garbisi to place his grubber virtually on a plate for Monty Ioane to finish.
The pick of Ireland’s tries was their first when three blunt power plays led to a scrum and Keenan timing his run on to Crowley’s shoulder to score off the outhalf’s delayed and disguised pass.
Italy continued to carry the greater threat through, Menoncello beating Robbie Henshaw on the inside from a deft pass by Juan Ignacio Brex, and Tommaso Allan regained the lead with a monster penalty before Lamaro’s rash moment.
Ireland monopolised territory and possession without ever being particularly sharp or comfortable. As well as their discipline, Ireland were indebted to the potency of their maul, as two backs again joined in a catch-and-drive for Sheehan’s second before Hansen set up the hooker’s third with a tap down from Jamison Gibson-Park’s well-placed kick-pass.
There was no denying the effort, but Ireland’s flat display lacked the energy and spriteliness of the Azzurri players, so betraying clear signs of a hangover in the fallout of losing to France and with it the chance of a lifetime. They are human.
One ventures that this stumble over the winning line won’t have enhanced too many Lions’ credentials beyond Sheehan and Keenan, although Hansen, Ireland’s most elusive and inventive player, was back to his best, with he and Lowe injecting the team with some of the X factor missing against France.
That said, Hansen won’t enjoy reviews of the two Italian tries as Capuozzo exploited space created by Lowe coming in off his wing again to chip Keenan before the bounce beat him and the covering Hansen for Stephen Varney to set up that taut endgame.
Perhaps fittingly, this was an anticlimactic finale to an anticlimactic Irish campaign.
Scoring sequence: 12 mins Ioane try, Allan con 7-0; 24 mins Keenan try, Crowley con 7-7; 33 mins Allan pen 10-7; 40 mins Sheehan try 10-12; (half-time 10-12); 47 mins Sheehan try 10-17; 58 mins Sheehan try 10-22; 63 mins Varney try, Allan con 17-22.
ITALY: Tommaso Allan (USAP, France); Ange Capuozzo (Stade Toulousain), Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton Rugby, capt), Tommaso Menoncello (Benetton Rugby), Monty Ioane (LOU, France); Paolo Garbisi (RC Toulon), Martin Page-Relo (LOU, France); Danilo Fischetti (Zebre Parma), Gianmarco Lucchesi (RC 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: Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby) for Lamb (19 mins), Ross Vintcent (Exeter Chiefs) for L Cannone (29 mins), Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby) for Negri (30 mins), Stephen Varney (RC Vannes, France) for Page-Relo (46 mins), Mirco Spagnolo (Benetton Rugby) for Fischetti, Giosuè Zilocchi (Benetton Rugby) for Ferrari (both 57 mins), Giacomo Nicotera (Stade Francais) for Vintcent (69 mins), Leonardo Marin (Benetton Rugby) for Allan (76 mins).
Yellow card: Lamaro (39-49 mins),
20-minute red cards: Vintcent (49 mins), Nicotera (80 mins).
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster); Mack Hansen (Corinthians/Connacht); Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster); James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster), Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Corinthians/Connacht), James Ryan (UCD/Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster), Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster), Caelan Doris (St Mary’s College/Leinster, capt).
Replacements: Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) for Bealham, Joe McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster) for Ryan (both 49 mins), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) for van der Flier (52 mins), Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) for Henshaw (57 mins), Jack Boyle (UCD/Leinster) for Porter, Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster) for Crowley (both 66 mins), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) for Gibson-Park (67 mins), Gus McCarthy (UCD/Leinster) for Sheehan (71 mins).
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
