IRELAND 57-6 ITALY
A Six Nations bonus point win and nine tries banked for Ireland and yet it still felt like an unsatisfactory afternoon at the Aviva Stadium.
No-one outside the away dressing-room would have given Italy a chance prior to kick-off, as evidenced by the subdued atmosphere at Lansdowne Road apart from the emotional reaction to a message condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yes would have taken something special for Italy to prevent a 35th straight defeat in the championship and, in the end, Kieran Crowley's men trooped off on what was another demoralising day for Italian rugby.
In truth, the game ended as a contest in the 19th minute, just as they appeared to be warming to their task and having reduced their deficit to 7-3.
For when Hame Faiva was shown a deserved red card it delivered a double blow to the Azzurri.
Faiva walked after TMO Eric Gauzin alerted ref Nika Amashukeli to the hooker's high tackle on Dan Sheehan.
So far, so clear - but the problem was that Faiva had come on for starting hooker Giancarlo Lucchesi, who was injured in the ninth minute.
Under a little known World Rugby regulation, Italy had to bring on a front row - in this case Ivan Nemer - but also had to play with only 13 until a yellow card for Braam Steyn in the 75th minute saw them finish with just 12 players on the pitch.
Both sets of players looked confused by the situation and the Georgian ref, on his Six Nations debut, had to order the Italians to take off another player.
The rule is there to prevent teams going to uncontested scrums if their scrum is is in trouble. On this occasion, Toa Halafihi was the unfortunate man to go.
So and it was pretty much one-way traffic from there, as underlined moments later by James Lowe's try on his return to the side and the game resembled a training match as it became a question of how many points Ireland would accumulate.
Of course there were some positives for Andy Farrell.
Debutant Mike Lowry scored a brace of tries, Joey Carbery added to his bank of experience with his second start at no 10 in a row while Dan Sheehan and Ryan Baird made their first championship starts.
A hungry James Lowe was everywhere on his return from injury and scored two tries as a reward, while Johnny Sexton - off the bench - and Robbie Henshaw also made their returns.
But with England up next in 13 days time, Farrell will have plenty to say to his players about their indiscipline as they coughed up far too many penalties and butchered several more try scoring opportunities despite having so much space to play into.
Furthermore, the sight of Andrew Porter limping off and Henshaw also coming off injured was worrying with the Twickenham test to come.
The game started promising as Ireland, playing at a high tempo, opened their try account in the fourth minute.
Carbery wasn't involved in the build-up after clearing out a ruck but he finished the move after Caelan Doris off-loaded to Sheehan, and he put the Munster out-half in. Carbery added the extras.
The hosts were up and running only to then hit a slump. Ireland were careless with and without the ball, with penalties conceded at ruck time and for offside.
Tadhg Beirne was offside from a Jamison Gibson-Park kick and Edoardo Padovani fired the penalty between the posts from 55 metres.
Ireland were struggling to find cohesion.
Then with Faiva gone and no 8 Halafihi's removal from the action, Ireland took mere seconds to cash in.
Lowe fielded a clearance on the left wing and all too easily handed off Padovani to allow Gibson-Park to stroll in for Ireland's side's second try, although Carbery missed the conversion.
Mack Hansen had the chance to repeat his magic in Paris when Carbery sent a cross-kick his way but the winger could hold onto the ball and the opportunity was gone.
But a Garry Ringrose kick through had Montanna Ioane in all sorts of trouble and the winger kicked over his own try line before gathering under pressure for a five metre scrum for Ireland.
Moments later, Lowry enjoyed his moment in the spotlight when he latched onto Carbery's pass and accelerated past Ignacio Brex on the outside for his first try at this level and Carbery's conversion made it 19-6.
Skipper Peter O'Mahony secured the bonus point two minutes before the break.
Van der Flier once again had the Italian defence backtracking with a barnstorming run before Beirne took up the baton and Ringrose delivered the killer pass to O'Mahony to score.
Carbery missed his second conversion before Garbisi punished another offside decision against the hosts to make it 24-6 at half-time.
In fact, Garbisi had a chance to repeat the trick just two minutes after the restart but missed his long range effort after Robbie Henshaw was pinged for holding on in the tackle.
The injured Porter was replaced by Dave Kilcoyne and then the home side wasted a great chance to score when Lowry failed to find Lowe.
The fifth try arrived in the 51st minute. Beirne charged deep into the Italy 22 and Lowe finished with time and space to spare from Gibson-Park's long pass.
Carbery's last act was to miss another conversion and, five minutes later, his replacement Sexton nailed a tough two-pointer after setting up Lowry.
Baird got in on the act 11 minutes from time when he blocked down Callesandro Fusco's box-kick and raced in for his first Test try.
Sexton again converted for a 43-6 lead.
Lowry could have crossed for his hat-trick in the 76th minute but instead found Lowe, who scored his second and Ireland's eighth try.
Naturally, Sexton landed the conversion close to the touchline and the half century was up.
And, with the clock well into the red, replacement Kieran Treadwell marked his first appearance in green since 2017 by crashing over. Sexton's conversion ended the misery for the visitors.
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