Alan Quinlan: Italians wanted it more than we did and our maul is motionless
Italy's Sergio Parisse is tackled by Jamie Heaslip during yesterday's Pool D clash at the Olympic Stadium GETTY IMAGES
Ireland supporters Sara McClure, from Belfast (left), and Allie Farrell, from Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, ahead of the game. Photo: Stephen McCarthy
Dermot Keaney, his daughter Kathleen and wife Victoria dressed up for the occasion
Irish fans Tim Ryan, Michael Casey, Christian Fitzgerald and Gary Blackburn from Dublin make their way to the stadium.
Fans Hillary Gray, from Monaghan, and Aisling Smyth, from Meath.
Father and son John and Jonah Free arrive at the Olympic Stadium in London. Photo: National Pictures/Joe Newman
I signed off Saturday's column by saying the win is all that matters, and while they got there in the end, I expected more from Ireland yesterday.
It was an ugly win; Ireland were made to work hard for it, but having to put in that effort to get over the line will help them in the pool's crunch fixture against France.
Three canters in the park would have been no good to Ireland going back to the Millennium Stadium, but after a poor, inaccurate hour, Ireland went back to basics, and carried hard ball into contact to earn a couple of penalties to get over the line.
The priority was to win the game, but we saw a very, very nervy performance overall: there'll be big relief in the camp to have this one out of the way.
Italy like nothing better than frustrating teams and for long periods of the game they certainly did that. But Ireland didn't help themselves either: by and large they were passive in defence and allowed Italy build up a head of steam; they kicked away too much ball; they conceded sloppy, kickable penalties; and they were not efficient enough in attack.
Italy deserve huge credit, though. After just coming back to training on Tuesday, Sergio Parisse was excellent, and his back-row colleague Simone Favaro didn't take a backward step either. They fought like their World Cup would be over with defeat and it looked like they wanted it more than Ireland.
Crucial
If they had managed to convert their set-pieces chances in attack they would have been ahead at the break, but their lineout throwing let them down at crucial stages.
With Peter O'Mahony in the bin they had a great chance to maul towards Ireland's line seven minutes from time, but they overthrew at the lineout.
It could have been a different result had they converted that chance.
Ireland had a few malfunctions of their own though and some of them were so basic that it pointed to a lack of focus and concentration.
We saw a good few handling errors and the attacking maul didn't operate well for Ireland. What once was a potent weapon spluttered for the second game in a row and that is a real concern.
On three occasions in the seven minutes before half-time Ireland failed to convert a rolling maul inside the Italian 22.
Italy defended them very well - they didn't engage at all on one occasion, on another they broke through the heart of the maul to disrupt Rory Best, and Conor Murray knocked on at the end of the third one.
And it's not as if the lineout ball is not clean - Ireland still haven't lost a lineout in their three games - but the maul has stopped going forward. It's definitely an area to focus on this week.
Until O'Mahony left the field, the Irish scrum was rock-solid. It was only when Tommy Bowe stood in on the flank that Ireland lost their first scrum of the tournament.
The introduction of Cian Healy and Nathan White didn't weaken it any either, so that's a real positive ahead of a real test with the French front-row. Just look at the Australia-England game to see how important a solid scrum is.
There were other positives too. Things improved a little after the restart when Iain Henderson was more evident in disrupting Italy's possession - he executed a couple of great choke tackles - while Sean O'Brien carried a lot of ball.
O'Mahony was good - apart for his deserved sin-binning - and his try-saving tackle on Josh Furno was key. Had it been a specialist finisher there, rather than a forward, Italy would have gone one point up.
That chance came from a good break from Parisse, but the way that Ireland were opened up when Italy retained the ball through the phases was worrying. That will have to improve against France, because the French will finish those chances.
Ireland definitely needs to be smarter at the breakdown too. Like they did against Wales in the warm-up game, Ireland got suckered a few times and committed four or five men to the ruck when no Italian was challenging for the ball. Italy were happy to fan out and have numbers on their feet, which enabled them to put huge pressure on with their line-speed.
It would be very easy to be pessimistic after that display, but I'm sure there was plenty of nerves about before hand. Ireland were 10 or 15pc off where they needed to be, but with so much talk about the French game and its importance, maybe that was to be expected.
This was a massive scare, but they got out of it unscathed, with the win and a quarter-final place secured. But a big improvement is needed next week.
