Ireland upbeat despite costly Italy victory
DUBLIN: Joe Schmidt says he would have bitten someone’s hand off if it had been suggested a fortnight ago his Ireland side would have nine points after their opening two Six Nations matches.
The Irish will host Wales in a fortnight having beaten France in Paris and then romped to an eight try 56-19 bonanza against Italy on Saturday, garnering a bonus point.
The victory came at a cost, though, with star centre Robbie Henshaw — who scored two tries — to undergo a scan on his shoulder later yesterday.
Schmidt was more upbeat, though, about prop Tadgh Furlong who felt a tightening in his hamstring in the opening five minutes.
Still, Schmidt reflected on a job done after the first two matches.
“If you’d said to me a fortnight ago we would have nine points and a points differential of plus 39, I would have bitten your hand off,” said Schmidt.
“We do feel that we’ve gained a bit of confidence in going to France now, and to get the bonus point against Italy allows us a bit of confidence we’re heading in the right direction.”
Schmidt, who is bidding to secure a third Six Nations title since he took over after the 2013 tournament, did bemoan some sloppiness that allowed Italy to score three second-half tries.
He credited part of that down to Italy forcing turnovers and handling errors.
“The Italians eagerness to play and the line speed they brought provoked some of that and caught us a bit by surprise,” said the 52-year-old New Zealander.
“They hadn’t been quite so proactive against England, and maybe they thought they couldn’t let us play at them so much.
“After scoring two tries in the first 15 minutes then you start to get a little freer with the ball, take a chance you might not otherwise.
“I don’t mind if we take chances, I think it’s good we take chances, but we’ve got to keep taking responsibility for looking after the ball.
“We will want to tidy that up before we get to Wales.”
‘NO ONE IS SHIRKING’
His Italy counterpart Conor O’Shea said their first-half showing had knocked them off their feet, although he was encouraged by the manner in which his side reacted in the second period.
“I didn’t say this publicly before but I always thought this would be the hardest of hard days for us against a world class team,” said Irishman O’Shea.
“Am I glad we showed that fight? Yes, because we wanted to show our ability.
“Its not easy and you can’t wave a magic wand to turn things around but no one is shirking.”
O’Shea, a former Irish international fullback who has established a good reputation as a coach firstly with English side Harlequins, said such experiences would only serve to help his side make progress.
“This is the only way our players will learn,” said the 47-year-old.
“There were 10 [British & Irish] Lions on the Irish team and we had several with less than 10 caps.
“It is bloody hard.
“We have a lot of ability but we have a lot of work to do.”
RESULT
Ireland 56 Italy 19 (half-time 28-0) Scorers Ireland: Tries — Henshaw (11, 44), Murray (14), Aki (21), Earls (35), Best (53), Stockdale (60, 70) Conversions — Sexton (12, 16, 23, 37, 45) Carbery (54, 61, 71) Italy: Tries — Allan (56), Gori (66), Minozzi (75) Conversions — Allan (58, 67)