Richie Murphy’s men survive imperfect performance to keep alive hopes of three Grand Slams in a row
Ireland followed up their opening Six Nations match, a brilliant 37-31 win in Aix-en-Provence, with a second win over Italy in Cork to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive. Irish coach Richie Murphy and his players are now chasing an unprecedented three successive Grand Slams.
In the end it was and had become a liability, and even when the clock was in the red Italy earned a penalty off it and kicked to touch for a stirring finish, the visitors bashing up into the Irish 22 looking for anything to give them the win, replacement hooker Sheahan finally getting hands on a lose ball and kicking it dead.
You could have imagined a furious Murphy in the locker room pleading for calm and poise after they had taken the ball on using their big men Evan O’Connell, Luke Murphy and Alan Spicer to punch holes early on in the Italian defence.Jack Murphy’s penalty after four minutes gave Ireland an early lead.
But once again calamity struck Ireland and from the restart the ball was spilled loose. Again, the Italian standout wing Scalabrin gathered and ran in for his second try. It was another setback for Ireland but they still led 15-14 until an offside gave Pucciariello a penalty and Italy a 15-17 half-time lead.
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