Best puts his body on the line in this all Ireland effort against Italy.
Respect.
Ireland’s big game players stood up today and handed Italy a sound thrashing in this final Pool C game in Dunedin this morning. O’Connell, O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, O’Gara and O’Callaghan all rolled back the years and ably supported by the wrecking ball back row of Ferris, O’Brien and Heaslip the Ireland side made a mockery of their pre World Cup form and now look forward to facing Wales in next Saturday’s Quarter Final.
Surprisingly, Ireland laid down the foundation of this success in the front row with Healy, Best and Ross making a mockery of [my] pre match pronouncements by dominating the scrums, reducing Italy’s biggest threat into a penalty conceding liability, allowing Ireland to build up successive attacking platforms. However the loss of Best early in the second half, to a shoulder injury, is a blow to Ireland’s chances though it may see the call up of Ulster’s Andi Kyriacou as a replacement!
The first half was a tense and feisty affair with Ireland dominating proceedings but failing to take the points with both sides getting involved in niggly incidents as they literally fought for dominance. Bowe looked as though he had scored following a break by O’Brien only to be called back for a forward pass but O’Gara hit three penalties in reply to Mirco Bergamasco’s two, for the Italians, giving Ireland a 9 – 6 lead at the break.
O’Gara made it 12-6 two minutes into the second half and shortly after Bowe powered through the Italian defence to pass inside to O’Driscoll who sprinted through for the opening score with O’Gara adding the extras giving Ireland a commanding lead at 19 -6.
Five minutes later a break by D’Arcy was kept alive by Ulster men Best and Ferris (twice) before Ferris drew the defence to pass to Earls on the wing with birthday boy superstar accepting the present to slide over in the corner! O’Gara kicked brilliantly from the corner and the game was effectively over with Ireland leading by twenty points at 26 – 6.
Italy battled away, but with their scrum now a liability they failed to build any sustained pressure despite the best efforts of Parisse. Ireland, with their tails up, continued to attack with Kearney coming close and Sexton, on for O’Gara, added a penalty in the final quarter to push Ireland along to 29 -6.
The Azzurri pushed for a face saving try but it was Ireland who had the final say with Bowe nearly scoring from a foot rush down the length of the pitch only to be denied over the line. From the resultant 22 drop out a searing break by Trimble, on for O’Driscoll, set up the birthday boy for his second try in the corner to finish the game in some style. Sexton added the icing on the birthday cake with an excellent conversion from wide with the final kick of the match giving Ireland a thoroughly deserved 36 – 6 win, setting up that mouth watering Quarter Final against Wales next Saturday morning, KO: 6:00am.
Apart from the unfortunate loss of Best, it was a good game for the Ulster men on show. It was pleasing that it was Ulster born Bowe, Ferris and Trimble that set up the Irish tries laying on the final pass in all cases.
Rory had an excellent game up until his injury, helping Ireland dominate the scrums and as industrious as ever in the loose. Typically, his last action was putting his body on the line to keep the ball alive in the passage of play leading up to Ireland’s opening score. With Best and Flannery now out it will be interesting to see who Ireland call up as a replacement with Kyriacou the most likely candidate on current form.
Ferris went through a huge shift in defence, and despite Heaslip and O’Brien getting thoroughly deserved plaudits, it was the big Ulster wrecking ball that broke the Italian resistance with his shuddering tackles.
Trimble did as much as he could with his five minute cameo, giving Kidney a timely reminder of his cutting edge for Ireland’s third try and big ole Tom Court looked unusually vocal and animated when he came on in the closing minutes. Let’s hope he brings some of that back when he returns!
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