They and their fans were exceptional, and it says everything about their display that they even awoke and engaged the home crowd. Now the Azzurri have truly arrived and it\u2019s great for the Six Nations.<\/p>\n
Where Ireland played too little rugby in Paris, they played too much here, and lost direction until the introduction of some heavyweight forwards and the controlling presence of Jamison Gibson-Park and Jack Crowley.<\/p>\n
The former\u2019s decision-making was sharp and accurate, while Crowley ran on to the ball and picked out his runners to put the Italian defence on the back foot. To find space one must first attack space, and Crowley slipped seamlessly into the attacking system.<\/p>\n
As he promised, Caelan Doris had a fine game, so too Jack Conan, in both attack and defence, with 31 tackles between them. Stuart McCloskey was again constantly effective on both sides of the ball, and in addition to 16 tackles, his carrying and offloading again giving the Irish attack a focal point. <\/p>\n
He had another two try assists here to go with his one in Rome, and it helped that the back three were all a threat and confident on the ball, Robert Baloucoune giving them a decisive cutting edge on his overdue Six Nations debut at 28, while Cormac Izuchukwu\u2019s selection was also vindicated with his lineout skills and workrate.<\/p>\n
The stadium was about a third empty when the teams emerged and the interludes were enlivened by Dean Martin crooning That\u2019s Amore and Neil Diamond\u2019s Sweet Caroline, which engaged some of the crowd more than the rugby.<\/p>\n
Yet at that stage Ireland were going well, albeit the start promised much more than was delivered. Most disconcertingly, by the second quarter Ireland had completely lost their way and were in much greater need of the interval.<\/p>\n
Ireland had as much return from the \u201ccontestables\u201d in the opening two-and-a-half minute stanza than in the entire 80 minutes in Paris. Both Baloucoune and Lowe each reclaimed Craig Casey box kicks, and both made ground every time the ball came their way as Ireland carried with intent and found space on the edges.<\/p>\n
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/V3KKEK2NI4H5IIITOZRLJQDYOY.jpg\")
Ireland’s James Lowe (right) is tackled by Italy’s Louis Lynagh. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA <\/p>\n
An early chance went abegging when Holly Davidson deemed Dan Sheehan\u2019s leap to the try-line from a tap penalty as \u201cdangerous\u201d. Tommaso Menoncello, always menacing but who\u2019ll have plenty of regrets, kicked the ball dead after Louis Lynagh had cleverly regained a Paolo Garbisi crosskick. Instead, Lynagh was binned for a one-handed knock down and Ireland deservedly struck through a sustained phased attack.<\/p>\n
Conan and Clarkson made good carries, and McCloskey ran straight and hard before swivelling out of Manuel Zuliani\u2019s tackle to feed Jamie Osborne, who had held his depth for a well-timed support line.<\/p>\n
But Prendergast pulled an eminently kickable conversion wide and Izuchukwu\u2019s slight tug on Andrea Zambonin enabled Garbisi to make it a two-point game \u2013 scant reward for 80 per cent territory and 74 per cent possession.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, Ireland\u2019s attack was becoming clunky and a couple of aimless punts by Prendergast compounded a couple of inaccurate earlier box kicks by Casey, who was harshly yellow carded for what the TMO and Davidson regarded as a highly dangerous high hit on Lorenzo Cannone \u2013 a ludicrous call.<\/p>\n
Italy went to the corner and after the initial drive was stalled, the centres and Monty Ioane joined in the maul for hooker Giacomo Nicotera to plunge for the line, Garbisi converting.<\/p>\n
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5FF65Q2I7PQYBXN262K6TY64SA.jpg\")
Ireland’s Stuart McCloskey is tackled by Italy’s Niccolo Cannone. Photograph: Billy Stickland\/Inpho <\/p>\n
They played the same hand off a scrum penalty, but Garry Ringrose and Stuart McCloskey stopped Menoncello, McCloskey also preventing the offload to end the half.<\/p>\n
Despite being very good in general play that scrum penalty meant Tom Clarkson was hooked at half-time for Tadhg Furlong, and Ireland exploded out of the blocks, Baloucoune reclaiming the restart and Prendergast kicking a penalty to the corner. Loughman, Conan, Izuchukwu and Loughman again all carried, and Conan\u2019s low drive from Doris\u2019 popped pass was unstoppable.<\/p>\n
Alas, Prendergast again missed the kickable conversion to leave the sides level, the Irish scrum stood up under pressure and Ireland had a huge let off when Menoncello beat Conan in midfield but his pass for Lynagh to finish was rightly adjudged forward on review.<\/p>\n
Instead, Andy Farrell made a quadruple substitution, followed by that of Jack Crowley for Prendergast to huge cheers. This served to inject real tempo into Ireland\u2019s attack, as the ball reached Lowe and Izuchukwu on each edge before Crowley and Tadhg Furlong moved the ball on to McCloskey. His basketball-style pass led to Baloucoune brilliantly stepping Lorenzo Pani and fending Lorenzo Cannone for a superb finish.<\/p>\n
Crowley converted and added a penalty after Jamison Gibson-Park wasted an advantage play and The Fields was given its sole airing of the match. Soon the tension returned as Garbisi made it 20-13 with a scrum penalty.<\/p>\n
The noisy Italian contingent were nearly celebrating their side drawing level only for Garbisi\u2019s pre-called chip bounced up and eluded Menoncello when, had he gathered, he\u2019d have scored under the posts.<\/p>\n
Even then, Ireland had to survive a 12-phase attack into overtime after Davidson had set up a grandstand finish with a harsh penalty against Edwin Edogbo when he had actually pulled his hands off the ball on instruction from the referee. But Ireland defended well and Lowe picked off Monty Ioane\u2019s pass and broke clear, Crowley then kicking a penalty dead to end any chances of a bonus point.<\/p>\n
Up in the coaches\u2019 box, Farrell smiled wryly. His gamut of emotions would have undoubtedly included a large portion of relief as well as pride.<\/p>\n
Scoring sequence: 17 mins Osborne try 5-0; 21 mins Garbisi pen 5-3; 32 mins Nicotera try, Garbisi con 5-10; (half-time 5-10); 43 mins Conan try 10-10; 59 mins Baloucoune try, Crowley con 17-10; 63 mins Crowley pen 20-10; 67 mins Garbisi pen 20-13.<\/p>\n
IRELAND: Jamie Osborne; Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Cormac Izuchukwu, Caelan Doris (capt), Jack Conan. Replacements: Tadhg Furlong for Clarkson (half-time), R\u00f3nan Kelleher for Sheehan, Tadhg Beirne, Jamison Gibson-Park for Casey (all 52 mins), Jack Crowley for Crowley (56 mins), Tom O\u2019Toole for Loughman (67 mins), Edwin Edogbo for Ryan (70 mins).<\/p>\n
Sinbinned: Casey (32-42 mins).<\/p>\n
ITALY: Lorenzo Pani; Louis Lynagh, Tommaso Menoncello, Leonardo Marin; Monty Ioane; Paolo Garbisi, Alessandro Fusco; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari; Niccolo Cannone, Andrea Zambonin; Michele Lamaro (capt), Manuel Zuliani, Lorenzo Cannone. Replacements: Tommaso di Bartolomeo for Nicotera, Mirco Spagnolo for Fischetti (both 59 mins), Federico Ruzza for Zambonin (61 mins), Alessandro Garbisi for Fusco (63 mins), Riccardo Favretto for N Cannone, David Odiase for L Cannone, Paolo Odogwu for Marin (all 67 mins),<\/p>\n
Sinbinned: Lynagh (11-21 mins).<\/p>\n
Referee: Hollie Davidson (Sco).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six Nations: Ireland 20 Italy 13 A wild, fluctuating, rollercoaster of a game, not in keeping with so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1449,132479,43,15551],"class_list":["post-298126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-italy-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298126","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=298126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}