Debutants Have Desired Impact As Ireland Run In Seven Tries

Debutants Hugo Keenan and Will Connors claimed three tries and the player-of-the-match award between them as Ireland powered to a 50-17 bonus point win over Italy.

Keenan touched down twice in the first half and Connors registered a 60th-minute bonus point, with the pair helping Andy Farrell’s men back to winning ways and straight to the top of the Guinness Six Nations table.

Ireland are now a point clear of both England and France, their final round hosts in Paris next Saturday night. It makes for a thrilling conclusion to a Championship that stalled eight months ago due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The current restrictions made this a behind-closed-doors clash at the Aviva Stadium, and Ireland recovered well from Conor Murray’s early sin-binning to lead 24-3 at half-time. Winger Keenan bagged a brace to add to CJ Stander’s seventh-minute opener.

Italy book-ended the second half with tries from Edoardo Padovani and Paolo Garbisi, but the hosts reeled off scores from Connors, 18-point captain Jonathan Sexton, Bundee Aki and replacement Dave Heffernan to emerge as convincing winners.

The 24-year-old Keenan became only the fifth Irish player in Five/Six Nations history to score two tries on their tournament debut. He follows in the footsteps of John Arigho (1928), Bertie O’Hanlon (1948), Seamus Byrne (1953) and John Kelly (2002).

While there were plenty of positives for Farrell to take from Ireland’s successful return, they are set to be without Garry Ringrose for a number of weeks. The Leinster centre’s face came in contact with Padovani’s knee when he attempted to charge down the winger’s kick.

“Garry has broken his jaw so bad news for us all,” Farrell said of the 25-year-old, who was replaced by Robbie Henshaw in the 26th minute. “He’s been so good for us the last 10 days, he has been absolutely fantastic with his leadership.

“He was a big part of the reason why we got what we wanted out of today. He was unfortunate with his thumb injury earlier in the Six Nations and has come back and had a setback like that which will keep him out for four to six weeks, so we’re gutted for Garry.”

Seeing his four new caps (Keenan, Connors, Ed Byrne and Jamison Gibson-Park) all contribute handsomely was particularly pleasing for Farrell, who added: “I thought they were excellent, superb. We asked them to be themselves and not just hope that things go well.

You’ve got to create stuff and be yourself and back yourself and I thought every one of them to a man did that. Obviously Hugo and Will got to play the full game and their work ethic was fabulous.

“It’s what we would expect of them and what we see them doing week in and week out. It would be interesting to see Hugo’s GPS and Will’s tackle count.”

“The energy that they gave the side was exactly what we wanted of them and for Ed to come off the bench and get stuck in, not just try to fit in and hope that things go well. They were being themselves and ‘Jamo’ came on and hit a nice little kick over the defensive line.

“That was great. To see them all was great and they kept the continuity going. Great to get them all under way and I’m sure those (caps) are the first of many.”

Garbisi left-footed the Azzurri into a third-minute lead, rewarding a sharp line break from Sebastian Negri. The supporting Marcello Violi was hauled down short with referee Matthew Carley sin-binning Murray for infringing close to his own line.

However, by the time the Limerick man was back in action, Ireland were 10-3 to the good. A choke tackle, led by Rob Herring, Aki and Andrew Porter, immediately lifted the intensity and laid the platform for some potent phases with Ringrose standing in at scrum half.

The Irish forwards carried hard off a maul, with Ringrose also sniping twice, before Stander expertly absorbed two tackles and reached out to score beside the posts. Sexton converted and also tagged on a 13th minute penalty as Ireland began to gain the upper hand at the breakdown and the scrum.

Porter and Connors picked up turnover penalties as they locked onto ruck balls, although Ireland needed to tidy up their lineout and Italy ended the first quarter with 58% possession. Another positive impact from Ireland’s tighthead – this time turning over an Italian maul – got the home side back on track.

Ringrose had to depart after he was caught by Padovani’s knee as the Italian winger kicked downfield. Ireland pressed off a penalty and moved a 28th-minute maul infield, setting up Henshaw’s wide pass which allowed Keenan to step inside Jayden Hayward and finish smartly past two more defenders.

After Sexton nailed the difficult conversion, Keenan was denied a second try by a TMO decision. Jacob Stockdale scythed back brilliantly on a kick return, surging past halfway before sending his back-three colleague over in the same left corner. Unfortunately some interference by James Ryan on Marco Lazzaroni saw the score ruled out.

Nonetheless, Keenan did complete his brace five minutes before the break, rewarding Ireland’s determined defence that had kept Italy out from 16 phases. Caelan Doris pinched possession, sparking a breakout from the 22 involving Aki and Murray who dangled an inch-perfect kick out to the left for Keenan to ground.

Another tricky conversion was successfully negotiated by Sexton, leaving 21 points between the teams at the interval. Italy responded well during the third quarter, making the breakdown a real scrap with Jake Polledri’s early turnover penalty seeing them build from deep.

Further Irish indiscipline gave Franco Smith’s charges good field position, and although Ireland snapped back possession, a floated pass by Sexton was intercepted by Padovani for a well-taken try from just inside the Irish half. Garbisi’s conversion close the gap to 24-10.

A Sexton break, coupled with successive penalties, saw Ireland move back within sight of the Italian whitewash. Fresh-legged front rowers Heffernan and Byrne played their part in a well-set maul which delivered the bonus point score for a burrowing Connors.

Upping the pace further following Sexton’s conversion, a Stockdale aerial take sparked some of Ireland’s best attacking phases. Henshaw, Keenan and Stander made hay down the left wing before Doris drove up aggressively and Murray fed Sexton for a textbook close-range finish at 36-10.

Continuing the trend when Murray was on the pitch to keep ball in hand, the newly-introduced Gibson-Park provided plenty of zip to his pass as further scores were sought. Profiting from Tadhg Beirne’s turnover, Peter O’Mahony supplied an outstanding one-handed offload to send Aki jinking away from Hayward and over for try number six.

Sexton’s well-struck conversion was his final act – he is now joint-sixth on the all-time top Championship scorers’ list alongside Scotland’s Chris Paterson (403 points) – and there was still time for both sides to cross the whitewash in the dying minutes.

Six Nations debutant Heffernan muscled over from a lineout maul to make it four tries for Ireland in the space of 19 minutes, with fellow replacement Ross Byrne quickly drop-kicking the conversion through the posts.

However, if the title race comes down to points difference, Farrell’s side may yet regret allowing 20-year-old talent Garbisi to run in a fine individual score from 35 metres out.