Ireland 29-11 Italy

Perfect O’Gara Leads Champions to Opening Victory

Ronan O'Gara turned in a perfect kicking display as Ireland brushed aside Italy 29-11 in the opening fixture of the RBS 6 Nations at Croke Park.

It was a far from vintage performance from last year’s Grand Slam winners, but O’Gara – back in the No.10 shirt due to an injury to Leinster’s Jonathon Sexton – contributed 16 points while lock Leo Cullen will have Donnacha O’Callaghan sweating on his place as he destroyed the Italian lineout.

Tries from No.8 Jamie Heaslip and scrum-half Tomas O’Leary in the first half helped put Ireland in the driving seat but Declan Kidney will be worried both by his team’s lack of a cutting edge throughout the game.

After an Italian offence at the scrum, O’Gara made no mistake with a tenth-minute penalty to become the first player to break the 500 point barrier in Six Nations history.

Worse was to follow for the visitors as O’Gara demonstrated his gifts with the ball in hand whipping a perfect flat pass for Andrew Trimble to run onto.

The Ulster winger broke down the line and the ball was superbly worked through the backs for Heaslip to run over with O’Gara adding the extras.

Neither side were really able to find their feet and on 26 minutes the Azzurri scrum exacted a measure of revenge by forcing Ireland into conceding a penalty and Six Nations debutant Craig Gower stepped up to land a huge 45m penalty.

But immediately from the restart Italian lock Carlo Del Falva was penalised for holding on and O’Gara duly restored Ireland’s ten-point lead.

Things went from bad to worse for the Italians on 33 minutes when centre Gonzalo Garcia was sin binned for a dubious spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll. The referee was adamant he committed the foul but on seeing the replays it could be deemed a very harsh decision against the unfortunate Italian.

Leo Cullen, making his first Six Nations start in seven years, once again stole Italy lineout ball and from the resulting attack O’Leary needed no second invitation to dive over with O’Gara’s conversion giving them a commanding 23-3 lead.

But Ireland’s first half was blotted when Rob Kearney gathered a difficult bouncing ball only to fire his clearance straight at Kaine Robertson who gleefully dived over. Mirco Bergamasco took over the kicking duties from Gower but was off target with the conversion.

Bergamasco did, however, split the posts with a penalty just after halftime but just like they did in the first half Ireland responded immediate through O’Gara to make it 26-11.

There were no fireworks in a turgid second half which only saw one more score, a penalty from the highly impressive Paddy Wallace, and the result will give both coaches plenty to ponder.

Declan Kidney, however, will still be the happier of the two coaches. Especially at the displays of Leo Cullen and Six Nations debutant Kevin McLaughlin in the pack and Gordan D’arcy aswell as substitutes Keith Earls and Paddy Wallace in the backs.

Wallace, in particular, showed exactly why Kidney chose him at Fly-Half for the Irish Wolfhounds match against England Saxons last week. Finally Ireland seems to have a decent 3^rd choice Fly-Half should the unthinkable happen and both Sexton and O’Gara become injured.

France next Saturday will provide a much sterner test than Italy did today and if Ireland continue to play in the manner they did today then they can forget about a second Grand Slam.

Man of the Match: Leo Cullen