Guscott: It’s time to >> drop some players, England
IRISH captain Johnny Sexton hopes their rout of Italy at Stadio Olimpico will provide the confidence to have a right crack at Scotland and England in their remaining games and rescue their poor Six Nations form.
Andy Farrell’s men ran in six tries and did all that was required of them on another grim day for the Italians, who slumped to a 30th Six Nations defeat in succession.
Farrell and Ireland were under pressure after their losses to Wales and France but Sexton believes this has now given them a platform for the remainder of the tournament.
“We need to keep our performance like that against two very good sides,” said Sexton.
“Scotland, obviously, have been very impressive and if not for a red card would probably be top of the table.
“This team is on a journey together and we are a year into it. We would have liked to have this performance earlier. It’s not for want of trying, it’s just little fix-ups along the way and thankfully we put a few of them right.”
Ireland, fielding an allLeinster back-line for the first time in 90 years, made it clear from the outset that unlike the losses to Wales and France they were prepared to put the ball through the hands and test the suspect home defence.
It took time for them to get flowing, an early exchange of penalties from out-halves Paolo Garbisi and Sexton just a prelude to Ireland taking charge and, after Iain Henoffloading
derson was unlucky to have a try ruled out for an apparent knock-on, Garry Ringrose burst through the slack tackling of Carlo Canna and Monty Ioane to get them off the mark.
Sexton converted and added a penalty but Ireland then had to saturate considerable pressure. However, the Italians yet again lacked a cutting edge and it was easy to defend a tactic which focused on taking it up the middle and then going wide trying to get Ioane away.
Ireland turned the screw before the break and good
prised open the home rearguard with Ringrose putting his fullback Hugo Keenan through for a fine score nine minutes from the break.
Jordan Larmour set up their third try to send flanker Will Connors away down the left, with Sexton’s fifth conversion pushing them 24 points clear.
Italy got some hope before the break when Garbisi stepped inside and offloaded superbly for Jean Meyer to supply the finish, with the conversion from the out-half leaving it 27-10 at the interval.
It was all one-way traffic after the restart. CJ Stander wrapped up the bonus three minutes after the restart on the seventh phase after a penalty to the right corner and another day of woe for Italy continued when first tighthead Giosue Zilocchi and then captain Luca Bigi were binned.
Connors got his second try when Italy were down to 13 men but they had to wait until the final minute for their sixth try when Sexton, who landed eight kicks from eight in his first 80-minute international since last March, put Keith Earls over in the right corner for his 33rd Irish try.
Italy coach Franco Smith, whose side have now conceded 139 points and 19 tries in their three games in this campaign, said: “I couldn’t have asked for more but for now they’re better than us, even if we are doing everything to become like Ireland.
“Credit to them, they were under a lot of pressure after two defeats and came to Rome with great determination. We are really disappointed.”