Ireland eventually subdued the Azzuri in Dublin running in five tries on their way to what would end up as a comfortable Six Nations win over Italy.
It took Ireland a little while to settle and in fact it was Italy who had the first chance of points as early as the second minute but Tobias Botes continued the Azzuri horror show with missed kicks. He did make up for it putting Italy into the lead shortly thereafter. Ireland were now begging to settle and cause problems. first Jonny Sexton levelled the scores with a penalty. Then he converted a Keith Earls 16th-minute try making it 10-3 but Sergio Parisse scored a brilliant individual try and Botes converted to make it 10-10. The half was closed out thanks to a Tommy Bowe try converted by Sexton giving us the half-time score of 17-10.
The second half was all Ireland as they ran in three unanswered tries through Tommy Bowe, Tom Court and Andrew Trimble. The scoreline was further helped by Sexton making seven out of eight kicks. Ireland play France next weekend and will feel more confident about an upset thanks to this outing. Final score:
Ireland 42-10 Italy
Scorers
IRELAND
Tries: Earls, Bowe 2, Court, Trimble
Cons: Sexton 4
Pens: Sexton 3
ITALY
Try: Parisse
Con: Botes
Pen: Botes
Teams
Ireland: 15-Kearney, 14-Bowe, 13-Earls, 12-D’Arcy, 11-Trimble, 10-Sexton, 9-Murray; 1-Healy, 2-Best, 3-Ross, 4-O’Callaghan, 5-O’Connell (c), 6-Ferris, 7-O’Brien, 8-Heaslip.
Replacements: 16-Cronin, 17-Court, 18-Ryan, 19-O’Mahony, 20-Reddan, 21-O’Gara, 22-McFadden.
Italy: 15-Masi, 14-Venditti, 13-Benvenuti, 12-Sgarbi, 11-McLean, 10-Botes, 9-Gori; 1-Rizzo, 2-Ghiraldini, 3-Cittadini, 4-Geldenhuys, 5-Bortolami, 6-Zanni, 7-Barbieri, 8-Parisse (c).
Replacements: 16-D’Apice, 17-Staibano, 18-Pavanello, 19-Favaro, 63), 20-Semenzato, 21-Burton, 22-Canale.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Touch judges : Nigel Owens (Wales), David Changleng (Scotland)
TV : Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)