Ireland vs Italy, 8th March

First topic message reminder :

IRELAND VS ITALY

Date: Saturday, March 8
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Pascal Gauzère (France), Greg Garner (England)
Television match official: Geoff Warren (England)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)

IRELAND TEAM wrote:15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Iain Henderson, 5 Paul O'Connell (c), 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.

16 Sean Cronin, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Martin Moore, 19 Rhys Ruddock, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Paddy Jackson, 23 Fergus McFadden.

ITALY TEAM wrote:15 Luke McLean, 14 Angelo Esposito, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Paul Derbyshire, 6 Joshua Furno, 5 Marco Bortolami (c), 4 Quentin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Alberto de Marchi

16 David Giazzon, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Antonio Pavanello, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Andrea Masi

If we win this game by a larger margin than the winners of the other two games achieve then it's very, very simple- we set up a Cup Final for ourselves in Paris to win the Championship. We do already have the best points difference but we have a chance to settle the issue of points difference beyond all doubt and make this a very simple equation. An Ireland win in Paris, and we are champions. We are out to score and Joe Schmidt has named his strongest available team.

Italy have chosen to rotate their squad with half an eye on targeting the final game against England, Sergio Parisse is rested along with the first choice halfbacks in a team with a more experimental look. Tito Tebaldi and Andrea Masi make long awaited returns to the Italian match day squad and Luciano Orquera will hope to recapture the form which saw him perform so well in some famous Italian victories in the 2013 campaign.

There'll be plenty of applause for a retiring legend... but no room for sentiment. A ruthless and clinical performance is required.

Well I never! What on earth happened there?

Hmm, could see that coming.

That was the kind of poor defense you'd expect from super rugby!   

WHAT A RUN BY THE WINGER, GREAT TRY FOR ITALY.

Sorry for shouting.

well taken try from irish errors!

The Italian back 3 look deadly,

another thing I didn't think I would be saying a few years ago

Very well deserved by Sarto

Great try Italy...

What a game

Biltong wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:Great ball hygiene from Best at the thrown ins... using a fresh white towel for each throw.

maybe he is a germophobe?

  

Ah feck... Sarto in for a score.

Nice try Sarto! Italy have been making all the tackles...Chilli missed an important tackle there.

GloriousEmpire wrote:That was the kind of poor defense you'd expect from super rugby!   

dont even start!

wales606 wrote:The Italian back 3 look deadly,

another thing I didn't think I would be saying a few years ago

And they have a few good wingers unavailable too... These guys look very handy

Great dancing down the line by Sarto.

This without Parisse too

Sorry but all Ireland chasers were ahead of the kicker - should've been a kickable penalty to Italy there.

Concerned about Murray - feeling nauseous...isn't that a possible concussion symptom?

Thought that was ok from the Italian 6...

Off to watch the Bulls vs Blues, enjoy the game guys

First penalty comes from the Italian captain,

good penalty too

Couple of bad decisions going against italy there. The scrum was fine, then the one for in at the side was wrong - scrum half already had it in his hands.

This is a wonderful game so far. Ireland look the better side but Italy are playing with admirable ambition.

Can Italy finally build an exciting backs division in the next couple of years? Campagnaro and Sarto look excellent players. Sarto isn't spectacular but boy is he hard to bring down.

Finally, I said a few weeks back that Nigel Owens had been in charge of many excellent test matches recently. Could this be another? It reflects well on an excellent referee imo.

Cowshot wrote:Concerned about Murray - feeling nauseous...isn't that a possible concussion symptom?

Think it was more of a body blow taking that high ball. His head seemed to escape the major impact.

Linebreaker wrote:

Cowshot wrote:Concerned about Murray - feeling nauseous...isn't that a possible concussion symptom?

Think it was more of a body blow taking that high ball. His head seemed to escape the major impact.

He was certainly caught weirdly, he had one leg up in the air. Hopefully he'll be fine for france

Oooow, unlucky - it was on if Tibaldi got that ball away

great work McLean

Owens being his usual excellent self.

I said before the game that Ireland would be silly to go into this game thinking 'by how much do we beat Italy by'. I was shouted down and told that Ireland should not respect Italy, well Italy are playing very well indeed and deserve a lot of respect.

Wi11 wrote:

Finally, I said a few weeks back that Nigel Owens had been in charge of many excellent test matches recently. Could this be another? It reflects well on an excellent referee imo.

If the second half is the same as the first, this will be the best game of the 6 nations so far, by far.

Tactically Italy are better than Ireland at the moment.

Another player concussed. Derbyshire I think.

Derbyshire off for 5 minute concussion check - probably needs it with all the tackles he's made

If the injury rate goes on like this we'll be watching League by the end...

Just a thought, someone wrote recently that Parisse had touched the ball as often as the Italian fly half in the previous 3 games, and so would be hugely missed. Actually I don't think they have suffered at all from having to use their backline more.

No wonder Derbyshire is wobbly with the number if tackles he's made today

did Henry release in the tackle?

Oh now this is better from Ireland. They should get a score out of this.

Great run Kearney!

Quick thinking by Reddan -Italy need to hold on until halftime

Darcy down injured! Lot of injuries so far.

One offload too far there

I was thinking about Parisse earlier...Italy look like they don't miss him at the moment.

crikey, i nipped into the kitchen to get a jaffa cake, come back 15 seconds later and they are at the other end of the pitch.

Toner has done really well with his runs, very impressed with him.

Great effort there

Wi11 wrote:crikey, i nipped into the kitchen to get a jaffa cake, come back 15  seconds later and they are at the other end of the pitch.

There's an excuse for you to go on a diet!

TRIMBY!!!

He's an old fart, but odriscoll just sees things and makes them happen

Trimble over... great feign and pass again from BOD

i don't like the amount of tackling and holding on off the ball thats going on.

Great pass by BOD but Trimble had a lot of work to do and finished well.

tigertattie wrote:He's an old fart, but odriscoll just sees things and makes them happen

He's set up two tries now. Maybe he won't score himself then, he'll let the others take the glory.

Lovely little dummy

Another stroke of genius from bod - he's the difference between these two teams at the moment - but should Owens have disallowed it due to proximity if the attack using the med team as obstruction?

GloriousEmpire wrote:Another stroke of genius from bod - he's the difference between these two teams at the moment - but should Owens have disallowed it due to proximity if the attack using the med team as obstruction?

Yes - whistle should have been blown - scrum Ireland