{"id":296955,"date":"2026-02-14T01:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/296955\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:53:13","slug":"ireland-under-20s-get-first-win-of-six-nations-campaign-after-cracking-clash-with-italy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/296955\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland Under-20s get first win of Six Nations campaign after cracking clash with Italy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under-20 Six Nations: Ireland 30 Italy 27<\/p>\n

Andrew Browne\u2019s Ireland<\/a> just about did enough to secure their first win in this season\u2019s Under-20 Six Nations after a cracking encounter at Virgin Media Park.<\/p>\n

Italy deservedly left with a couple of bonus points and would have secured the win had Ireland not defended stoutly in the closing stages of a game which ebbed and flowed throughout on a freezing night in Cork.<\/p>\n

Ireland will now head to play England in Bath next week with a pep in their step after this win but also knowing they have plenty of room for improvement.<\/p>\n

Italy,\u00a0having settled after a nervous start, were good value for their 17-15 interval lead after an entertaining first half from two teams hoping to bounce back after opening round defeats.<\/p>\n

Ireland, having lost lock Donnacha McGuire before the game with MU Barnhall\u2019s Se\u00e1n Walsh coming into the matchday squad to replace him, bossed the early exchanges and seemed poised to pull away for victory when they deservedly opened a 10-0 lead after 13 minutes.<\/p>\n

Tom Wood settled them with a third-minute penalty after good early pressure, and it was no surprise when they crossed for the opening try with a break from Derry Moloney creating the opening before fullback Noah Byrne set up his scrumhalf Christopher Barrett, who scored twice in the defeat to France, racing in to score a converted try.<\/p>\n

But Italy, who ended the half with 68 per cent possession, hit back. Their ability to offload before the tackle stretched the home defence and the pressure paid off when winger Luca Rossi sprinted home with penalty advantage after being set up by his superb captain Riccardo Casarin. Outhalf Francesco Braga converted from the left to cut the gap to 10-7.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Daniel Ryan is tackled by Malik Faissal of Italy. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Ireland extended their lead eight minutes from the break when a break from debutant Rob Carney led to an onslaught on the Italian line and with penalty advantage they went wide and winger Daniel Ryan scored after fullback Byrne was stopped short.<\/p>\n

But Ireland messed up the restart and Italian made them pay, hooker Valerio Pelli scoring after they went to the left corner with a penalty.<\/p>\n

Braga converted from the wing and then added a penalty from 35 metres to take a 17-15 lead into the break.<\/p>\n

Italy pressed after the restart but a superb hit by Wood on his opposite number Braga led to a turnover which Carney exploited before the Tipperary native threaded a grubber which Moloney exploited when he had the pace to dash through and score to edge them 20-17 in front after 46 minutes.<\/p>\n

Ireland, despite losing flanker Joe Finn to the bin for dragging down Italy\u2019s impressive maul, managed to reverse the Italian forward dominance with replacement hooker Rian Handley impressing, but only after hooker Pelli got his second try to put the visitors back in front.<\/p>\n

Ireland got back in front on the hour when South African native Josh Neill scored from a tapped penalty and Wood, having converted, stretched the lead to 30-22 18 minutes from time.<\/p>\n

But Italy made Ireland sweat all the way when replacement hooker Jacopo de Rossi scored off a lineout 11 minutes from time and it took a brilliant turnover from Walsh in the final play to save Ireland after Casarin had tapped a penalty from deep.<\/p>\n

SCORING SEQUENCE \u2013\u00a03 mins: Wood pen, 3-0; 13; Barrett try, Wood con, 10-0; 20: Rossi try, Braga con, 10-7; 32: Ryan try, 15-7; 34: Pelli try, Braga con, 15-14; 40: Braga pen, 15-17; Half-time: 15-17; 46: Moloney try, 20-17; Pelli try, 20-22; 60: Neill try, Wood con, 27-22; 63: Wood pen, 30-22; 69: de Rossi try, 30-27; Full-time: 30-27.<\/p>\n

Ireland:\u00a0N Byrne; D Moloney, R Carney, J O\u2019Leary, D Ryan; T Wood, C Barrett; M Doyle, L Fitzpatrick, S Bishti (capt); D McNeice, S Walsh; J Finn, J Neill, D O\u2019Connell. Replacements: B Hayes for McNeice (6-14 mins), B Blaney for O\u2019Connell (51), R Handley for Fitzpatrick (56), Hayes for McNeice (62), C O\u2019Shea for Wood, B McClean for Bishti, C Foley for Doyle, J O\u2019Dwyer for Barrett (all 70), J O\u2019Sullivan for Carney (79).<\/p>\n

Italy:\u00a0E Vitale; M Faissal, D Coluzzi, R Casarin (capt), L Rossi; F Braga, A Teodosio; C Brasini, V Pelli, L Trevisan; S Fardin, E Opoku-Gyamfi; A Miranda, C Antonio Bianchi, D Sette.\u00a0Replacements:\u00a0L Tosi for Trevisan (51 mins), N Varotto for Teodosio (60), J de Rossi for Pelli, G Messori for Brasini, M Spreafichi for\u00a0Opoku-Gyamfi, A Scaramazza for Vitale, T del Sureto for Coluzzi (all 66), J Noel Wilson for Sette (73).<\/p>\n

Referee:\u00a0Luke Rogan (USA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under-20 Six Nations: Ireland 30 Italy 27 Andrew Browne\u2019s Ireland just about did enough to secure their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,39220,43,127019],"class_list":["post-296955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby-u20s","tag-news","tag-six-nations-under-20s-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}