Ireland squeak past Italy into quarters

Ireland booked their place in the quarterfinals of Rugby World Cup 2015 with a narrow 16-9 victory over Italy at Olympic Park in London. In a match that would turn out to be an arm-wrestle from beginning to end, Italy’s hopes for a surprise victory took a blow after just four minutes as inside centre Gonazlo García was forced off with an injury.

When Ireland earned the first points of the match only three minutes later, with a cinch penalty from fly-half Jonny Sexton, it looked as though Italy could be in for a long day at the office.

However, some sloppy play by Ireland on attack combined with Italy’s trademark strong tackling allowed the Azzuri to find their feet, and soon enough they had pushed their way deep into Irish territory. A penalty at the breakdown to Jamie Heaslip gave Tommaso Allan a shot at goal from in close, which the Italian fly-half duly slotted to tie the score at 3-3 through 15 minutes.

Ireland would hit back quickly, stealing against the throw deep in Italian territory in the 19th minute. A couple of quick movements later and Keith Earls went over for a try—his record-setting eighth for Ireland in World Cup competition. Sexton would convert on another kick from right out front of the posts, and Ireland were ahead 10-3.

More excellent push-back from Italy secured a second penalty off the boot of Allan to make the score 10-6 in the 24th minute, and momentum was well on the side of the Azzuri when they secured yet another kickable penalty only three minutes later. However, a curious decision to spurn the points in favour of a kick for touch would cost the Italians as they lost the ball on the ensuing lineout.

The game would settle in to a long spell of scrambly play and inaccurate kicks for the ten minutes ahead of halftime, a missed penalty by Sexton from long range leaving the score at 10-6 through 40 minutes.

Things began to open up when the teams returned from the sheds, and Italy would come close to their first try. With the Irish defense scrambling, the Italians worked the ball wide and Joshua Furno found himself with a clear path to the corner. The big lock showed his attacking inexperience, though, crashing over the line but failing to ground the ball before Peter O’Mahoney could drag him into touch.

Italy would earn a penalty soon after, Allan knocking it over from 40 metres out to bring the score to 10-9. Appropriately scared into action, Ireland’s clever tactics began to shine through; aerial bombs and attack pods threw the Italian defense off balance, and Sexton would kick three-pointers at 58 and 62 minutes to extend the lead to 16-9.

Ragged back-and-forth play would ensue for the next ten minutes, causing plenty of nervous moments for the favoured Irish, and the screws turned ever-tighter with Peter O’Mahoney yellow-carded with eight minutes to play. Italy failed to mount any sustained pressure, however, and sealed shut their own coffin when Guglielmo Palazzani surrendered a penalty for blocking off Tommy Bowe on a high box kick. Though Sexton would fail to convert, the possession was all Ireland needed to run out the clock and secure the victory.

Despite the men in green having ensured their place in the knock-out rounds, Irish supporters will no doubt be lamenting their team’s lackluster performance, and the hope will be for a more inspiring show against France in one week’s time.

Italy, meanwhile, are officially eliminated from the next stage of Rugby World Cup. They will now set their sights on avoiding an upset loss to their doppelgangers from Romania in the final test match of 2015 for both teams.

IRELAND 16
Tries – K. Earls (19)
Pens – J. Sexton 3 (9, 58, 62)
Cons – J. Sexton (20)
Yellow cards – P. O’Mahony (72)

ITALY 9
Pens – T. Allan (15, 24, 52)

IRELAND
1 J. McGrath (C. Healy 58) 2 R. Best (S. Cronin 70) 3 M. Ross (N. White 58) 4 I. Henderson (D. Toner 67) 5 P. O’Connell (capt.) 6 P. O’Mahony 7 S. O’Brien (C. Henry 67) 8 J. Heaslip 9 C. Murray 10 J. Sexton 11 D. Kearney 12 R. Henshaw 13 K. Earls (L. Fitzgerald 76) 14 T. Bowe 15 S. Zebo

ITALY
1 M. Agüero (M. Rizzo 62-72) 2 A. Manici (D. Giazzon HT) 3 L. Cittadini (D. Chistolini 62) 4 Q. Geldenhuys 5 J. Furno 6 F. Minto 7 S. Favaro (M. Bergamasco 67) 8 S. Parisse (capt.) (A. Zanni 64) 9 E. Gori (G. Palazzani 76) 10 T. Allan (C. Canna 64) 11 G. Venditti 12 G. García (T. Benvenuti 3) 13 M. Campagnaro 14 L. Sarto 15 L. McLean

match report by Kyle Phillips, follow Kyle on twitter @nomadenhaft