I sat there waiting for someone, anyone, to spark. It didn’t happen
TRUST me, I’ve played in some bad matches over the years. I have been in contests where my team were poor, the other crowd were as bad and your only hope was that their mistakes would carry a higher cost than yours.
Those dismal memories came flooding back as I watched this match unfold. It really was awful, and the best thing that could be said for Ireland was that they survived. We were way off form but Italy were as poor as I’ve ever seen them in this competition.
The fundamentals in our game were good: the line-out and the setpiece survived the disasters happening elsewhere and as a result of that there was a platform on which the win could be built.
But away from the set-pieces there was damn all to warm your hands on here.
Losing Seán O’Brien before kickoff does in some way explain the performance, because he is worldclass, a terrific ball-carrier, something Ireland lacked. But O’Brien’s KO does not tell the whole story because his replacement, Tommy O’Donnell, did very well.
Ireland’s awful history with Italy tells another part of it. We simply have an issue with them in Rome. There has been the odd easy day for Irish teams over there – but not many of them.
As a result, this was the most uncomfortable 23-point win I’ve ever seen. Bright spots? It won’t take long to go through them. The scrum, line-out, decent shows from Robbie Henshaw, O’Donnell (right) and a promising return for Conor Murray.
Ian Keatley did what was asked of him but I found myself sitting and waiting for something, or someone, to spark.
It didn’t happen. Rob Kearney played within himself, Paul O’Connell too, and this is when it’s worth reminding ourselves that we are missing some major players. Johnny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy would get into any team in this competition and you will eventually pay a price for struggling on without them.
The fact is, however, we were never in danger of paying the ultimate price here, not for one second. They wouldn’t beat us if they were still out there now trying to do so. That they were so bad it makes Ireland’s floundering against them all the more frustrating, but this is a game that needs to be wiped from the memory banks.
You take a victory like this, get out of town and never look back. France will present completely different challenges but Ireland will be a different team going up against them. Not only will almost all the stars be ready to return but facing one of the best teams in the world will bring a different reaction from the Irish squad.
This group of players have achieved too much in national and provincial jerseys for us to fear otherwise. They will improve and some have been trying to convince me that we’ve now got our bad performance out of the way. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that but it’s nice to think it might. Ireland created practically nothing for most of the game, but the return of Sexton and a fitter Murray should help to fix that. The centres could get a shake as well, with Luke Fitzgerald maybe complementing Henshaw more than Jared Payne does. Rob Kearney must be allowed a rare off-day. He was not alone in having one against the Italians, but Ireland won thanks to their total command of the basics. That, and one of the worst Italian displays I can ever remember.