Ireland Vs Italy
Ireland took on Italy yesterday in Donnybrook and were looking to get a second win in a championship that has seen a number of new caps included as Tom Tierney tries to add depth to a squad that is preparing for a home World Cup in 2017.
The game yesterday will be seen as a win but this is a game where Italy will think they had a golden chance to gain victory over a nervy Irish team that had a number of new faces sprinkled with some real experience. New caps Kim Flood and Liz Burke were given a chance to impress. They were part of a team that were under real pressure from an Italian side who looked up for the game from minute one.
There inside centre Michela Sillari was a bright spark and she was ably assisted by a pack that was more than happy to carry ball and take on the Irish forwards. Italy owned the ball in the opening 20 minutes and took a deserved 3-0 lead through a Sillari penalty and they continued to have large amounts of possession but they were very unfortunate not to add to that 3-0 lead and as the 1st half moved on and Ireland began to carry with more vigour and they also started to offload out of tackles which made things more difficult for Italy.
Ireland will know that they need to sharpen up in attack because every time the ball went beyond out half Nikki Caughey every move seemed to falter and barring the try from Paula Fitzpatrick which was the culmination of a driving maul. The other positives that coach Tom Tierney will take from the game were that there scrum and line out worked and this in turn created openings that the Irish back division just couldn’t take full advantage of.
This game will unfortunately not live long in the memory due to its stop start nature and both teams making errors that cost them as the game progressed. Ireland changed their half back pairing from Mary Healy and Nikki Caughey to Larissa Muldoon and Nora Stapleton and this change seemed to have the desired effect as Ireland even though they didn’t take their chance began to play with more freedom and the offloading game that was there in the first half returned with Sophie Spence , Maz Reilly and Ciara Griffin all carrying to good effect.
As I already mentioned the Irish set piece has not worked in this Championship but against Italy it all seemed to click and this solidity at the set piece was a refreshing change from the first three games were the set piece let Ireland down and probably cost them a win against England also not taking the chances that they create had an impact aswell.
Looking to the final game of the Championship next Sunday against Scotland , Ireland will want to win that game and finish on a high and make it three wins from 5 games. 14 new players have been blooded in the long term run up to the 2017 World Cup on home soil. Yes the Championship will not be won this year but if Ireland haved learned lessons from the three defeats against England last November and again in the Six Nations along with a defeat against France in The Stade Aime Giral this campaign will not have been in vain.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
14/03/2017
