Job done but no more than that
Ireland did what was expected against Italy, who are way out of their depth
IN SEARCH of some relief amid the mess of Italy’s latest humiliation, the words of Vitas Gerulaitis seem suitable. The late American tennis star is responsible for one of the most famous quotes in sport, and he said it after beating Jimmy Connors in 1980, following 16 consecutive defeats to his countryman.
‘Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row,’ he declared.
Self-deprecating, faux-macho wit like that is beyond anyone connected with Italian rugby’s increasingly farcical Six Nations participation.
The country has now lost 30 consecutive games in the championship, and there is practically no chance of them ending that streak when Wales go to the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday week.
Italy’s only purpose in the competition now is as a points pinata for everyone else: those teams competing to win the Six Nations know that in the event of a tight finish to the tournament, the extent of their scoring spree against Italy could be decisive.
Other than that, they are abject, entirely out of their depth, the sporting manifestation of jam tomorrow.
It is six years since they won in Murrayfield, their last victory in the competition, and there is no convincing evidence that they are building to a point where they can soon change that statistic, let alone build anything more sustainable than that.
Once upon a time, backing Italy was almost a fashionable stance in rugby. Being seen to support their involvement in the tournament took on a near-hipster flavour.
It indicated that the holder of such a view was well-informed, and grown-up enough to worry about the growth of rugby on a wider scale than beyond their own backyard. Now, anyone convinced that Italy are a coming force is deluded.
Franco Smith is the latest well-regarded coach to wager his reputation against Italy’s vast inadequacy.
It is at this point in the argument that Georgia are usually introduced as ideal replacements for the Italians were they to be removed.
Trading one helpless country for another isn’t going to help the competition, and the truth is that Italy will remain.
Perhaps taking the holistic approach and caring about the sport above and beyond the competitive integrity of the Six Nations, then Italy’s ongoing inclusion should be insisted upon.
They won’t improve, the case traditionally went, unless they are exposed to more games against better teams.
Those matches come every spring, and the outcome of them is increasingly predictable – and
Italy are getting no better. Smith will have a long two weeks trying to sift through this for useful flecks. Desperate gold-hunters stood in muddy puddles during the gold rush had more plausible grounds for optimism.
What Andy Farrell makes of the footage of this match must be questioned, too.
That flags up another problem with Italy playing and simply getting obliterated week after week. It doesn’t give their victorious opponents reliable evidence of progress. Ireland needed a big win and Italy obliged.
Extrapolating from that, that the team have suddenly slipped into the style and pattern and behaviours that Farrell has been demanding for the past 12 months seems like a very dubious leap to make.
Working off the battered cliché that every win is important, the victory will do Ireland’s morale good and, judging by the satisfied reaction on the final whistle last Saturday, the Ireland players felt the benefit of winning by 38 points. The set-pieces were sound again, and the improvements wrought by Paul O’Connell solidify, while the work of John Fogarty with the Ireland scrum needs to be recorded, too.
There were no defensive ruptures of the sort that led to defeats against Wales and France – but then, this was Italy.
More encouragingly, the attacking moves were much better: purposeful, accurate and economical to an encouraging extent.
Ronan Kelleher, Tadhg Beirne and Will Connors were outstanding, as were Hugo Keenan and Garry Ringrose.
Johnny Sexton’s performance was on a par with any of those.
This was less two fingers to the critics than what one would expect of an out-half who was among the best in the world and who, even as a veteran in his mid-30s, has the nous and the class to exploit the hapless strugglers massed against him.
If Sexton is able to reproduce this performance against Scotland and England on the final two
‘Italy’s only purpose is as a points pinata’
‘Players felt the benefit of a 38point victory’
weekends of the competition, then his place is entirely justified.
It does nothing to solve the problem of who succeeds him, but one suspects that issue could have taken a significant step in Cardiff on Friday night with the return to Munster action of Joey Carbery.
Farrell and his team can look with confidence to Scotland on Saturday week, followed by the visit of England in round five a week later.
The latter look in serious difficulty: sloppy, unfocused and vulnerable.
These next two games tantalise. The memory of this drubbing, against this pitiful opponent, won’t linger long.