Category: Italy

419 : Italy v Ireland wrap

2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 5, Stadio Olimpico, Rome 15/3/2025Italy vs IrelandIrelands Dan Sheehan scores his third try despite Paolo Garbisi of ItalyMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

🏉 Italian backs
🏉 Missed chances
🏉 Dan x 3
🏉 No try x 3
🏉 Polishing a 3rd

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

JAY LONG

DAVID CORDIAL

FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Italy were solid and pumped, only for the cards they may well have won this game, Ireland were good in spells but a lot of unforced errors, something you did not see in the 2022/23 season

Eamon Saunders

Sorry to say but the second best team won today and sad to say the the ref and TMO were bad 5 mins looking at a knock on and 5 seconds looking a a perfect try

John Hyland

(reply to Eamon Saunders) I totally disagree. Ireland played poorly but they were not the second best team

Cormac Mannion

We looked badly coached today. Zero inventiveness and unsure in defence. Far too many unforced errors

Angela Cassin Jackson

Tough game but a win is a win. 4 out of 5 wins and a triple crown a lot to be proud of. Well done Ireland as usual they represented their country wonderfully 💚☘️💚☘️💚☘️💚

Gavin Hegarty

We were shit at the things you can’t coach. Bad knock ons and handling errors. Really not like us.

We looked unfit and unmotivated.

Crowley left too many points out there

,this is meant to be his strength. 2/5 just isn’t good enough.

Sean MacDonnchadha

Thank god this hobble towards the end of the tournament has come. Gameplan needs an overhaul, skill levels need to come up, fitness looks an issue, depth needs to be built, attack needs to be less reliant on just set piece plays and most importantly confidence needs to be rebuilt.

Monica Keeler

Lets just applaud the lads ..and our 3 Retirees Cian, Peter and Conor..we better regroup before next year…Dont see many Lions in our squad.. oh and no way Lowe was in touch 🤬

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “IRISH DEPTH CHART”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN INCLUDING FRONT 5 VIDEO

THURSDAY

THROWBACK THURSDAY (on Substack)

FRIDAY

BULLS V LEINSTER PREVIEW FEATURING KEEGO

418 : Italy v Ireland preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Mack Hansen 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Finlay Bealham 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Jack Conan 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Gus McCarthy 17. Jack Boyle 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Peter O’Mahony 21. Conor Murray 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Bundee Aki

 ITALY : 15 Tommaso Allan 14 Ange Capuozzo 13 Juan Ignacio Brex (c) 12 Tommaso Menoncello 11 Monty Ioane 10 Paolo Garbisi 9 Martin Page-Relo 

1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi 3 Simone Ferrari 4 Dino Lamb 5 Federico Ruzza 6 Sebastian Negri 7 Manuel Zuliani 8 Lorenzo Cannone

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Mirco Spagnolo 18 Giosuè Zilocchi 19 Niccolò Cannone 20 Michele Lamaro 21 Ross Vintcent 22 Stephen Varney 23 Leonardo Marin

Guinness Six Nations 2025 Round 5

Saturday, March 15, 2025

KO 2:15pm  Stadio Olimpico

Live on : RTÉ2, ITV1

Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR1 : Angus Gardner (Aus)

AR2 : Morné Ferreira (SA)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

FPRO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

318 : Ireland v Italy wrap

2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 2, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland 11/2/2024Ireland vs ItalyIrelands Jack Crowley scores his sides opening try Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 50 club grows

🏉 Sluggish Azzurri

🏉 Offloads galore

🏉 Set piece dominance

🏉 The Lowe Show

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN (50th cap) & JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Lee O Farrell

Two Six Nations games, two new records (biggest away win against France and first time holding Italy to zero points). The future’s looking pretty good right now…

Kevin Kelehan

Dan Sheehan may well end up as top try scorer. Job done 5 points and on to stiffer tests ahead.

Hubert Gallagher

Feel underwhelmed and unfulfilled after that! In some respects a great result with 6 changes and holding Italy to zero – and they were lucky to even get that – but at same time we were a bit disjointed, looked less fluent than French game and left a lot of points out there! Having said that no-one player badly but I think a lot could play better. Crowley, Henshaw, Keenan, Conan, Lowe and McCarthy were notably good.

Christy O’Connor

Glad I didn’t get tickets for this. Atmosphere was awful. I know we were expected to win, but the Irish rugby fans have to be one of the worst. I’ve seen more life in a funeral parlour.

Some great performances from Lowe, Conan and big Joe. Crowely is doing well, made some silly mistakes but it’s great that it doesn’t phase him.

Greg Kelly

Italy just parked the bus. Fairly poor spectacle for the 6 nations overall.

Ireland were a bit error strewn at times but tough to really hit your straps when the opposition don’t light a fire under you.

Eamon Saunders

A workman like performance but a win is a win ,some mistakes but a win none the less 👏👏

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 16-20 FRANCE

ENGLAND 16-14 WALES

IRELAND 36-0 ITALY

ROUND 3

SAT FEB 24

IRELAND V WALES

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

SUN FEB 25

FRANCE V ITALY

UNDER 20s

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 14-29 FRANCE

ENGLAND 28-7 WALES

IRELAND 23-22 ITALY

ROUND 3

FRI FEB 23

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

IRELAND V WALES

FRANCE V ITALY

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS

317 : Ireland v Italy preview

Our guest : CIAN “RUGBY KINO” O’MUILLEOIR

IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Calvin Nash 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Craig Casey

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Finlay Bealham 4. Joe McCarthy 5. James Ryan 6. Ryan Baird 7. Caelan Doris (captain) 8. Jack Conan

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Jeremy Loughman 18. Tom O’Toole 19. Iain Henderson 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Harry Byrne 23. Jordan Larmour

Italy : 15 Ange Capuozzo 14 Lorenzo Pani 13 Juan Ignacio Brex 12 Tommaso Menoncello 11 Monty Ioane 10 Paolo Garbisi 9 Stephen Varney

1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi 3 Pietro Ceccarelli 4 Niccolò Cannone 5 Federico Ruzza 6 Alessandro Izekor 7 Manuel Zuliani  8 Michele Lamaro (C)

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Mirco Spagnolo 18 Giosuè Zilocchi 19 Andrea Zambonin 20 Ross Vintcent 21 Martin Page-Relo 22 Tommaso Allan 23 Federico Mori 

Guinness Six Nations 2024 Round 2

Sunday, February 11, 2024

KO 3pm Aviva Stadium

Live on: Virgin Media One

Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra) Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR1 : Mathieu Raynal (Fra)

AR2 : Luc Ramos (Fra)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)

266 : Ireland v Italy wrap

Bank of Ireland Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 5/8/2023 Ireland vs Italy Ireland’s Caelan Doris scores a try Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

OUR GUESTS : CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD

FRONT FIVE LINKS

  1. Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says Wallabies ‘will win the World Cup’ after narrow loss to All Blacks | Stuff.co.nz
  2. Springboks overcome scrappy first half to beat Argentina 24-13 | Reuters
  3. USA Men’s Eagles ride high with big win in Romania | Latest Rugby News | USA Eagles
  4. Scotland fight back but win over second-string France could prove costly (the42.ie)
  5. Match Centre: Wales 20-9 England (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk)
BONUS CLIP
HARPIN ON RUGBY MATCH WRAPS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE IRISH RUGBY STORE

265 : Harpin’ Preview Show #IREvITA

Our guest : MARK JACKSON

IRELAND : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Keith Earls 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. Jacob Stockdale 10. Jack Crowley 9. Craig Casey

1. David Kilcoyne 2. Rob Herring 3. Tom O’Toole 4: Iain Henderson 5. Joe McCarthy 6. Ryan Baird 7. Caelan Doris 8.  Jack Conan

Replacements:16. Tom Stewart 17. Cian Healy 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Tadhg Beirne 20. Cian Prendergast 21. Caolin Blade 22. Ciaran Frawley 23. Calvin Nash

ITALY : 15 Tommaso ALLAN 14 Paolo ODOGWU 13 Juan Ignacio BREX 12 Tommaso MENONCELLO 

11 Montanna IOANE 10 Paolo GARBISI 9 Stephen VARNEY

1 Danilo FISCHETTI 2 Giacomo NICOTERA 3 Marco RICCIONI 4 Dino LAMB 

5 Federico RUZZA (c) 6 Sebastian NEGRI 7 Manuel ZULIANI 8 Toa HALAFIHI

16 Luca BIGI 17 Paolo BUONFIGLIO 18 Simone FERRARI 19 Niccolò CANNONE 20 Michele LAMARO 21 Lorenzo CANNONE 22 Alessandro FUSCO 23 Lorenzo PANI

Summer Nations Series

Sat August 5 KO 8pm

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Ref: Mathieu Reynal (FRA)

AR1 : Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR2 : Luc Ramos (Fra)

TMO : Eric Gauzins (Fra)

Live on: RTÉ2

226 : ITALY v IRELAND WRAP

2023 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 3, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy 25/2/2023 Italy vs Ireland Ireland’s Mack Hansen Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 IRELAND’S CAAAA…..

🏉 Centre, Backrow & Halfback options

🏉 ……..AAAAAAAA………

🏉 Italy’s improvement

🏉 …AAAAAAAAAAAAALL.

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & TOM COLEMAN

PLUS A SPECIAL REPORT FROM RICH MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

FACEBOOK

Imelda Reidy Great Italian performance. Job done. 5 points. On we roll.

Andrew Byrne Today showed one thing in particular, that Gary Ringrose is a world class operator and is streets ahead of the rest of them at playing outside centre. 12 and 13 are two very different positions, as shown by our defensive lapses today.

Alan Murphy Brilliant. Two teams playing the game in a positive way. Italy have really improved. Let’s be honest, some of our team today were 2-3rd choice and a few played out of position. We scored a bonus point, left some tries out there and also managed to think our way out of danger today. Previously we would have lost this game. Building strength in depth. So positive from me.

TWITTER

MASTODON

Joanne  In fairness to Kieran Crowley, not only has he got Italy playing brilliantly, he’s got them believing too. So good to see and long may it continue.

Koochulainn Another win with a bonus point without conceding a losing bonus.

The performance wasn’t perfect, and Italy found some flaws in the defensive system, but you can’t get any more than five points.

Italy were great value for money too. After today and the 20s last night Italian rugby is heading in a good direction.

POTM Mack Hansen dropping an F bomb in the post match interview was a lovely coda

Colm Splendid match. Continued resurgence and improvement from Italy, and as usual this year, Ireland responded magnificently to pressure. Really looking forward to Murrayfield next month.

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. Former Ireland international Tom Tierney, who coached Irish women’s team, dies aged 46 – Independent.ie [Ruairidh O’Connor]
  2. Ireland U20s withstand second-half surge to keep back-to-back Grand Slam ambitions alive (the42.ie) [Daire Walsh]
  3. Ulster stun Sharks with sensational victory in Durban | BelfastTelegraph.co.uk [Jonathan Bradley]
  4. Borthwick praises England’s tactical nous in ‘incredible Test match’ – england | Rugby365 [via AFP]
  5. Scotland suffer first Six Nations defeat in France despite valiant effort after early red cards | The Scotsman [Graham Bean]

6N RD 3 & URC ROUND 6 WRAP

6N WRAP

ROUND 3

ITA 20-34 IRE

WAL 10-20 ENG

FRA 32-21 SCO

ROUND 4

MAR 11

ITA V WAL

ENG V FRA

MAR 12

SCO V IRE

URC WRAP

ROUND 6

SHA 24-31 ULS

LIO 35-24 GLA

ROUND 15

MAR 3

GLA V ZEB

MUN V SCA

MAR 4

STO V SHA

BUL V LIO

EDI V LEI

OSP V BEN

DRA V CON

CAR V ULS

HARPIN’ MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY STORE 

225 : Harpin Preview Show #ITAvIRE

OUR GUEST : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

IRELAND v Italy : 15 Hugo KEENAN 14 Mack HANSEN 13 Garry RINGROSE Bundee AKI 12 Bundee AKI Stuart McCLOSKEY11 James LOWE 10 Ross BYRNE 9 Craig CASEY

1 Andrew PORTER 2 Rónan KELLEHER 3 Finlay BEALHAM 4 Iain HENDERSON 5 James RYAN (c) 6 Caelan DORIS 7 Josh VAN DER FLIER 8 Jack CONAN

16 Dan SHEEHAN 17 Dave KILCOYNE 18 Tom O’TOOLE 19 Ryan BAIRD 20 Peter O’MAHONY 21 Conor MURRAY 22 Jack CROWLEY 23 Stuart McCLOSKEY Jimmy O’BRIEN

Italy : 15 A Capuozzo 14 E Padovani 13 JI Brex 12 T Menoncello 11 P Bruno 10 P Garbisi 9. S Varney

1 D Fischetti 2 G Nicotera 3 S Ferrari 4 N Cannone 5 F Ruzza 6 S Negri 7 M Lamaro (c) 8 L Cannone

16 L Bigi 17 F Zani 18 M Riccioni 19 E Iachizzi 20 G Pettinelli 21 A Fusco 22 L Morisi 23 T Allan

Guinness Six Nations 2023

Round 3

Sat Feb 25  KO 2:15pm

Stadio Olimpico

Live on: RTÉ2, ITV1

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

AR1: Wayne Barnes (RFU)

AR2: Craig Evans (WRU)

TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)